


Stars, My Destination

by I_HAVE_A_COOL_NAME



Category: DCU, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Manga Spoilers, Canon-Typical Violence, DC side, General Education Department Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes References, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Spoilers, New Earth, Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Spoilers for James Robinson's Starman run, Things tagged when they become relevant, Vigilante Midoriya Izuku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23881657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_HAVE_A_COOL_NAME/pseuds/I_HAVE_A_COOL_NAME
Summary: Izuku had always dreamed of being a hero. When a strange man offers him a chance to become one without a Quirk, he accepts.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	1. Initial Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> First thing I ever wrote. This is a crossover. This will be tagged later. EDIT: it is now tagged

In contrast to the exciting debut of Mt. Lady he had seen on his walk to school, Izuku was bored by school, it was the beginning of the first month of his last year at the school so the teachers were taking it easy, assigning minimal work and going over the rules for the year. Izuku finished what little work he had quickly and, since he was bored, he began to sketch a specific part of the dream he had last night. It was an odd dream in that he could remember it more vividly than the rest. In it he had been flying above some unknown city with an unknown object in his hands. For lack of a better feeling, the dream had felt correct. The part of the dream he was drawing was an object he saw when he had looked to his right during his flight. It appeared to be some form of rod or staff made out of metal, it was mostly straight with an almost v-shaped bend that led into its hooked top. 

Out of sheer curiosity he had done his best to look into what object could be in what little time he had between arriving at school and when school started, despite his best efforts, he had found almost nothing. The only mentions he could find of something similar to it were on an ald and obscure English language conspiracy theory website. The website was about the presence of Quirks in the Pre-Quirk era run by someone calling themself Djinn. Using his somewhat solid grasp of English, obtained through his study of All Might’s American heroics, Izuku found that Djinn vaguely knew of the object but didn’t know its name or purpose beyond that it was some sort of support gear. Most of the website was, for some reason, incoherent rambling about plants and Louisiana. Upon looking into the website more, however, he found that Djinn believed that they either knew of or were some sort of immortal AI created in the pre-Quirk era, though which option it they believed was vague. This was more than enough to write them off as someone who didn’t know what they were talking about. AI was not currently feasible for even the best minds at I-Island, a place with some of the best scientists and engineers in the world, so the idea of an AI existing in the far flung backwater times of the pre-Quirk era was a laughable one.

Izuku was snapped out of his daydreaming by the sound of thirty-four excited yells. At this noise, he looked up to find that the teacher had mentioned career paths and the excited cheers were the result of the student’s enthusiasm to become heroes . He looked down again, he was already set in what exactly he wanted to do. He would go to UA, he would be the first Quirkless person to pass the entrance exam, and then he would be the first Quirkless pro hero. He missed the teacher talking about him possibly wanting to apply to UA.

Hours passed. He was so preoccupied with the sketch in his notebook that he didn’t notice class had ended.

His thoughts were interrupted by one Katsuki Bakugo grabbing his notebook and yelling “Hey Deku! You’re taking the UA test right? Teacher said you are. You’re dumb, weak, and a coward. You don’t have a shot, so give up. Even if you do take the test, I bet you’ll freeze at the first sign of danger and then you’d just get in the way of those who deserve to take the test, people like me and some slightly less worthless extras. You and all the extras in this class, maybe even this school, won’t and can’t beat me at anything ever no matter how hard you try. I am the perfect hero. Giving up your dream is the only smart decision you’ll ever make. This notebook is worthless, like you are.” 

He exploded the notebook in his hand and threw it out of the window where it landed in a fountain with a splash. 

“Oh, one more thing Deku. If you do want to be a hero so bad, throw yourself off of the roof and pray for a Quirk in your next life, who knows you might just get lucky enough to be half as good as I am.”

And with those final words, he left.

\----------

Only one thing was on Izuku’s mind as he raced down the stairs and out of the building towards where he thought his notebook had landed; “I need to find it and see what information I can get from what’s still intact.”

What he didn’t expect to find after turning the corner into the area of the grounds it fell, was a man just standing there leaning on an ornate cane and reading his notebook. The man was tall, thin, and pale and seemed to give off an odd, dark aura. The suit and top hat he was wearing were the darkest shade of black Izuku had ever seen, so dark they seemed to have been woven from the shadows.

“Based on the name on the notebook, I assume you are Izuku Midoriya. Is this assumption correct?” the man said in distinctly accented Japanese. 

“Y-Yeah, that’s me” came the stuttered confirmation from the boy in question. 

“You take good detailed notes, I take it you want to be a hero?” The man questioned while walking closer.

“Yeah, but I'm Quirkless.” 

“Ah I see. A shame I suppose, your analysis is exceptional for someone your age. In that case I guess I have only one question for you. What do you know about this object and how did you learn about it?” The man pushed the notebook in his hand into Izuku's face, it was open to the page that had the drawing of the staff from his dream last night. Both the shadows and the air became tense as he asked about it.

“Um. Uh N-not much sir. It came to me in a dream and I, uh, just kinda drew it, I could find much stuff on it so if you wanna find it I can’t really help you with that.” Izuku mumbled, followed by a much quieter “Please don’t hurt me sir.” 

After a moment, the tension disappeared entirely.

“I have no reason to do that Mr. Midoriya, I will not harm you in any way, do not worry, I am nothing if not a man of my word. I am, however, interested in the contents of your dream, it interests me. If you have time could you please tell me about it?” the man said as he handed the notebook to Izuku before moving back towards the fountain.

Izuku let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “I-I was flying above a city, and, uh, I, uh, I couldn’t tell much of what w-was below me but it looked kinda like some photos of some American cities that I’ve seen, I think it was coastal, but I'm not sure. I think I was holding something with both of my hands but I couldn’t tell. Then I l-l-looked to the right and I saw that I was holding some sort of staff, or rod, or something and, uh, that’s pretty much it, yeah, that’s it.”

The man gave an incredibly faint smile. “And how did this dream make you feel.”

“Um, i-it made me happy I guess. It just kinda, uh, felt right, like I was supposed to be flying in the air, and saving people, and helping. Like I was a hero.”

“I gather that you truly want to be a hero. If so, you intend to do this, no matter whether people tell you to or not?”

“Y-yes sir I, uh, guess I do.”

“Good. If you truly want to learn, I can teach you how, no Quirk necessary. I have some experience with both heroics and teaching. I will teach until you are satisfied. Meet me at the park near that one beach. The one covered by trash. Named after some fictional planet I believe.” After he finished, the man turned and walked off of the grounds. Izuku followed. He distractedly left out of the same gate as the stranger had roughly a minute after him. Had he paid more attention to his surroundings, he would’ve realized that there was no sign of him anywhere on the long stretch of road the school was on.

\----------

Elsewhere All Might gave two bottles of sludge to a police officer while remarking that the capture of the sludge villain was surprisingly easy for a villian with such an interesting quirk.

\----------

For Izuku, school the next day seemed to take about three times as long as it usually did. It was a boring and tedious day where nothing of interest or value, outside of Bakugo vomiting during math class and arguing with the teacher about being sent home, happened. The second the day ended however, Izuku packed up his things and sprinted in the general direction of Dagobah municipal beach. When he got to the nearby park he hung around the edges of it, in doing so he had a higher chance of being seen by a pro in case things went south. He was unaware that he was mumbling all of this.

“You don’t exactly trust me after one conversation where I stated I could make your dream come true, good choice. However, if I had some sort of ulterior motive I would have already acted on it. As stated before, I will not harm you, I am a man of my word and you need not worry Mr. Midoriya.” The man said as he walked out of the shadows in the nearby alley. “Come along then, this location should serve our needs quite well.” He gestured towards a nearby French cafe before walking towards it, Izuku cautiously followed, having nothing better to do.

Once inside the man asked the woman at the counter something in what Izuku assumed was French, as they were in a French cafe after all. After the woman responded in the same language, the man gestured for Izuku to follow him towards the tables outside of the building. 

“This is a fine location for conversation, the fact we are publicly visible should help deter those concerns of yours that you rambled on about. I would have begun your training today, however, a friend of mine advised that talking first would perhaps be of more help to you. Ask any questions you have, one at a time please. Oh, and if you would kindly limit any information about me in your notebook. I like to be somewhat anonymous, and I also have many enemies that would desire information on me, so I like to limit information about myself. I can see your excitement in your eyes, go ahead and ask your first question.”

“Are you a hero?” asked Izuku, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Not exactly, briefly, a long long time ago, I was a villain. My actions were done out of boredom and curiosity. I will admit to regretting some of my actions, while others I simply could have done in a somewhat legal manner. Since then, however, I have been an on-again off-again vigilante of sorts, simply because I never bothered to get a license. I have been traveling for quite some time and as a result have been relatively inactive, so I would be surprised if you have not heard of me.”

“W-why should I trust you then?”

“You have no reason to, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to not follow through on my offer.”

"Why were you at Aldera in the first place?"

"A friend with the gift of foresight told me to be there."

“Where are you from?”

“England originally, I lived in Paris for a while, then I moved to a small city in Maryland you wouldn’t know of. I came here to visit an old friend of mine.”

“Who is the friend you were visiting?”

“The principal of UA.”

“How do you know him?”

“That is not my secret to tell. However, I can see if I can arrange a meeting with the three of us if you want. Please do not pursue this line of questioning further, any answers I have are strictly need-to-know.”

“W-What does your Quirk do?”

“I can manipulate the shadows.” 

“What’s your name?”

“You can call me Mr. Black.” Mr. Black said after a moment of silence.

“Why do you want to, uh, teach me?”

“I simply don’t want you to waste the potential your notebooks show you have. Beyond that, you also strongly remind me of an old friend of mine, he was one of the finest heroes I’ve ever met. I think your dream may have been about him. One of his colleagues believed that some people were called to do good in the world, and I believe that you have been called. But enough conversation for now, I believe that this young man here is our server, do you want anything?” 

Izuku didn’t.

While they had been talking, a blonde boy wearing a white dress shirt, black dress pants, and a shiny belt had walked up to the table and had been patiently waiting for a lull in the conversation so he could ask if they wanted anything. Mr. Black spoke to him in the mystery language, he repeated what had been said, received a confirmation and then walked back into the cafe, presumably to get whatever had been requested.

“Do you have any more questions for me?”

“Just one, what will you teach me?”

“History, how to maintain the support gear I plan on giving to you, physical training, conversation, acting and anything else that comes up, perhaps some field training of some sort. Now I’m assuming you are wondering why these subjects in particular.”

Izuku nodded.

“History can help you learn about the trials and mistakes of those that came before, if someone made a fatal mistake, you can avoid it. Physical training and gear are self explanatory, if your gear is in a subpar state or you can’t deal with the violence that can occur during hero work you will, most likely, die. Acting and conversation are a bit harder to explain but it has to deal with overcoming fear and talking down those who will cause harm to themselves or others. It is possible that you will, under my tutelage, engage in some practical experience.” 

The boy came back at this point and handed Mr. Black a glass before leaving. The two of them made small talk of little consequence for roughly four minutes.

Standing, Mr. Black asked “Shall I arrange to meet with Nezu in the future?”

“Oh, uh, sure.”

“Very well. Would meeting at the same place tomorrow at noon work for you?.”

Izuku agreed to the meeting, having no plans for his Saturday. At that Mr Black paid the waiter and the two of them went their separate ways.

\----------

It was an uneventful Saturday, Izuku had spent an hour of his morning copying the notes from his thirteenth journal into an undamaged spare notebook he had. The rest of his time was spent unsuccessfully looking into information on Mr. Black. What little he could find were English language references to a series of early 21st century folk tales about some sort of shadow using protector turned villain turned protector again from the Eastern United States. He assumed those were influences on his identity.

At around eleven he ate an early lunch and began his walk to the park. Nothing interesting happened on his trip. When he arrived he noticed that Mr. Black was sitting on a bench, presumably waiting for him. When Izuku drew near the entrance to the park he stood. 

“Come quickly, I managed to get to that meeting we talked about yesterday. It’s in half an hour.” He said while beginning walking in the general direction of UA. “We will be met at the gates by a member of the staff who will let us in and get us to the building we will be meeting in.”

The rest of the walk to the school was silent.

When they arrived Izuku noticed a very tired looking man in shabby clothing leaning on the gate. As they approached him the man seemed to carefully analyze the two of them before, apparently satisfied, gesturing for them to follow him into the grounds.

The three of them walked a fair way onto the grounds before turning onto a gravel path that led towards a small building on the edge of a forested area. The building looked like a large abandoned house made out of stone.

“I don’t know why Nezu insisted on meeting you here, it's been functionally abandoned since before my first year here; it isn’t a logical meeting location for any purpose.” said the monotone voice of their guide as they neared the building.

Upon reaching the house the three of them walked up the weathered exterior staircase and up to the big metal doors. The guide opened the door and led them to an office on the first floor. In the office there was a small, white, furry, mammal in a suit. Their guide turned and left the room.

“Nice to meet you Mr. Midoriya, my name is Nezu.” said Nezu while reaching for a handshake. “It's not everyday my friend here takes an interest in someone. You can imagine my surprise when he came to me to ask for teaching advice for a prospective student of his.”

Mr. Black showed no reaction to these comments.

Nezu continued, "What i’m about to say will sound bad, but I want you to hear me out. It is because of his interest in you that I cannot in good faith allow you into the hero cour-." "WHAT" interrupted Izuku. “Mr. Midoriya please let me finish my explanation before interrupting. You would take a spot from a student to learn information you would, by that point, already know because of your teacher, it would stunt your growth and take a spot from a potentially promising candidate. The main goal of the course is to gain a hero license in three years. There is more than one way to get a hero license. I am, however, willing to give you a full ride scholarship to the general studies course as consolation for this. 

Izuku was conflicted about this, he had always wanted to be in the hero course after all. He did think Nezu made a good point, should he follow his dream as he had always wanted to go about it and in doing so possibly crush another’s dream. No matter what he did though, the promise of possibly fulfilling his dream was there. In his conflictedness he asked the first question that came to mind, “What about the practical portions of the hero course?”

Nezu blinked, that hadn’t been the question he had expected, a quick glance to Mr. Black revealed that he was similarly caught off guard. The two of them had expected more resistance to the idea that he couldn’t be in the hero course.

“You don’t have a quirk correct?” 

“N-no I don’t.” 

“Then you get it by going out and stopping minor crimes and helping people in your local community. We could potentially allow you to take part in some hero course activities, mostly those that take place outside of school hours.”

“But isn’t vigilantism illegal?” Izuku was confused. This was because the principal of a hero school endorsing prospective students committing illegal activities is, naturally, uncommon.

“If you use your quirk, then yes, it is.”

“O-oh” Izuku still looked unsure of himself. Then he added, “If you don’t want me in the hero course and instead want me to be some sort of apprentice then I should at least know some more things about who I’m gonna apprentice under, he didn’t tell me much about himself.”

Nezu smiled, “A quick question for you before I answer that Mr. Midoriya. If I were to tell you that the bits about the hero course were some elaborate test of character, would you still be committed to this path?”

Izuku frowned, “I would be kinda mad about not being in the hero course, but what you said made at least a little sense, it may be my dream, but it's also the dream of a whole lot of other people. If I do go into general studies, I-I guess I don’t take the spot and someone else has a chance to be a hero through that path, to fulfill their dream that way.” 

Nezu somehow smiled even wider at his words. “Good, you would of course be allowed to try out for the hero course, I wouldn’t accept you, so you could use it as a test of abilities. I could even give you a test for a personal recommendation, the material based on your lessons of course. Now if you would kindly tell me what you know about Mr. Black here, based on what I’ve heard about your notebooks, you love information on heroes, so when an unknown figure shows up and offers to teach you, well, I’m willing to bet that you looked into him, I want to know what you know.” 

“I did but, um, I couldn't find very much. I do know that he can control the shadows, at some point he was a villain, he had a friend that had some sort of staff support gear that I could only find references to on a weird English language conspiracy website. Oh, and some old folk tales contain references to someone who matches his description which I guess could serve as inspiration for his costume and name.”

Mr. Black spoke up for the first time since entering the building, “Excellent work in information gathering. There isn’t much information on me on the current internet and you found most of what I am aware of. I would like to see the conspiracy website though, I dread some of the possibilities of the identity of it’s curator, few people remember the cosmic staff, and most of them are fairly unsavory characters. But nevermind that for now, those folk tales, if they are the ones I am thinking of, are indeed relevant to my story. They are about me after all.”

\----------

I have decided, due to the input of my mentor, to write memoirs of what has happened to me similar to what he has done. (As an aside, writing this makes me realize his significant influence on my verbosity and habits.) My name is Izuku Midoriya, this is my story, but if you picked this book up, you probably knew that already, it should serve the later generations well to know my story, and to, hopefully, be inspired by it. It may be long, at points it may be dull or prosaic, but it is my story quite the same. One filled with strangers, friends, heroics, forgotten history, and fearsome enemies. My story begins, with me in all my averageness, on one seemingly average morning in my average hometown of Musutafu. At this moment, to sound like a character from an incredibly dull-minded story, my understanding of the world as I knew it, changed. \- Memoirs of a Starman - Izuku Midoriya


	2. Starman Begins

\----------

Izuku was stunned, whatever he was expecting certainly wasn’t that his prospective mentor was from the early days of Quirks. This revelation set off his muttering. “Is immortality part of his Quirk? How does that relate to shadow manipulation? Is it two Quirks then? If he's that old, what heroes has he worked with or fought? How much can he possibly teach me? If he’s willing to teach people, why doesn’t he work at a hero school?” were just a few of the things that came out of his mouth. Mr. Black and Nezu looked on in amusement.

“I see you have many questions, I will do my best to answer as many as possible. There is one last thing I probably should have already told you, if you do accept this offer it will likely come with powerful enemies that mean you cannot let your name become publicly associated with me or the gear I plan to give you.”

“I-I can do that, I accept your offer.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Are you truly sure?”

“Yes, I am. I’ve pretty much always wanted to be a hero. You’ll teach me as long as I keep myself anonymous, I think I can do that, I didn’t want to become a hero for fame anyway. I-I’m gonna accept your offer. I-I want you to teach me as much as possible.”

Mr. Black smiled “Very well, allow me to introduce myself properly, my name is Richard Swift, Mr. Black is simply an alias I use from time to time. For business I use the name Shade. You can call me any of those names, whichever you feel the most comfortable with. Now let's talk about your training. I think some sort of workout regimen is in order, I have a friend that should be able to help with that one. I just need to contact him. Knowing him, whatever the physical training is will most likely be very harsh. I should get the plan by Monday, so, if it works, we can begin your training then. I will probably give you some gear then. Does meeting me then at the same place after your school lets out work for you?”

“That should work, I’ll meet you then.”

“Now I’m assuming you want your questions answered? Do you want to hear my story? It should answer most of them. If you do, know that even condensed it is a rather long one.”

“Sure I’ll listen, but I probably should get home so Mom doesn’t get too worried, so if you could tell the quickest version you can, that’d be nice.”

“I’ll try to make it quick then. Please save any questions for later. My story begins in the middle of the 1800s in London. I was in some sort of magical accident that gave me my abilities, I don't know the specifics of it. At the time I thought my abilities were a curse that separated me from the rest of humanity. Because of this belief, my life changed at the advent of Quirks in the nineteen-thirties, suddenly I wasn't alone in the world, there were others out there, others like me. I know this probably sounds suspect, claiming Quirks first appeared a whole seventy years before it is currently believed that they did, I have an inkling as to why the knowledge was lost, but we’ll get to that. I became a sort of foe to a hero of that time, I fought with him mostly for my own entertainment, eventually saved him, but that’s another story. Eventually, I became involved in a villain’s plot and I defected to the side of Opal’s, that’s the city I lived in, heroes. Me and these heroes from this time had many adventures. But eventually Jack, the main hero, retired and for a time there was relative peace in the city. Alas this was not to last as the villians of the world united and made a telepathic weapon to wipe the minds of the planet. I was luckily exempt from this, though to this day do not know why I was. Then, there was a conflict, those heroes who remembered, versus the villains. Many on both sides died. This is about when that baby was born. Things from here on out get a little hard to explain, before we get to that, do you have any questions on what I've told you so far?” 

“Magic is real?!”

“Yes, although I am admittedly somewhat unfamiliar with the subject so I can’t tell you much about it.”

“Just two more then, how were they able to erase about forty years of history so quickly and thoroughly. There has to be more than memories to prove that it happened, so how did they get rid of that?”

“I don’t know much about the plan they used, but I do know they destroyed any memorials or museums then had people forget them. I was lucky to salvage what gear I could from these attacks. I believe that they used some digital entities and hackers to scrub the internet clean. But even beyond that, there was more to the plan. I know this because, somehow they removed references in books and the like, I suspect magic was involved. To make things more complicated, the most skilled telepath I knew claimed that they used some sort of telepathic trigger to keep people from acknowledging something, although he ever figured out what it was for.”

"Why don't people know about this?"

"Someone is trying to keep it secret. They are actively suppressing any and all attempts to spread knowledge this. We know of a couple of people it could be, but we aren't exactly sure why. Our best guess is that it's a villain who wants to be unknown.

“What about the villain organization, what happened to them?”

“They fell apart because the coalition had many rival factions united under one banner. Many independent villains were pressured into joining these factions. As a result, the villains devolved into excessive and violent infighting after they got rid of the superheroes. During the fighting, some of the factions, like the Brotherhood of Evil, just vanished, while others, such as Intergang, were destroyed.”

“Just one more, were early Quirks different in any way?”

“Most early Quirks were latent and were activated by a significant experience or the use of what would nowadays be called support gear. There were substances that gave specific powers, but those all had drawbacks or were exceedingly rare.”

“Sorry but I gotta know, are those substances something I’m going to use?”

“No, I never could get most of the safe ones and even the most harmful of the others are simply too risky or expensive to get at this point.”

“Oh.”

“Is that all the questions you have?”

“For now, yes.”

“Good, this next period of time has a lot of information that is strictly need-to-know. If it becomes relevant to the present, I will tell you. As a result of this, there are large gaps in this story. Anyway, roughly two years after the erasure there was a second disaster, an alien conqueror descended to Earth. I’m still not exactly sure what happened during it or even how long it took as whatever happened is quite complicated. I think it is marked as two months in the calendars, but I’m not sure. I do know that many more heroes and villains died during this. Then a couple years later the Quirk wars began and for roughly a century there was chaos, technological progress slowed to a crawl and, in some cases was lost entirely as people forwent technology in favor of their Quirks. I believe there is currently a slightly higher level of technology than before the wipe, although fields have recovered at different rates so it is difficult to say. During this time I protected my city to the best of my abilities. I still do protect the city from time to time, although not as much as I used to, I tend to leave it to the heroes there nowadays. And with that we are roughly up to date, any more questions?” 

“Yeah a couple. You fought in the Quirk wars?”

“Yes, me and a few people I knew threw our lot in with a very minor player in the war, Khandaq.”

“Khandaq? You’ve been there?” It was famously hard to visit or get information on Khandaq.

“Yes I have, but that’s a story for another time.”

“You said you lived in America, did you know the Rhode Island seven?”

“Yes, yes I did. Odd team, but their hearts were absolutely in the right place. Them being the first to be legitimized was strange though, they tended to deal in oddities. I do know that the outrage Danny getting a license caused is rarely mentioned nowadays.”

“Have you ever met All Might?”

Shade smiled at the question, “Yes I have, but that’s a private matter between him, me, and his teacher. It relates to some of the need-to-know information I talked about earlier.”

“Ok.”

“Is that all then?” 

“Yeah.”

“Before you go, I found the website you mentioned Mr. Midoriya. It's an interesting sight for sure. Thank you for finding it, Djinn is a potentially dangerous individual if they have knowledge of the pre-Quirk era. ” Nezu said as he showed his screen to Shade.

Izuku was curious about this “How?”

“There are many powerful weapons and artifacts that, because of the chaos of the last two centuries, have unknown whereabouts. To give a couple of examples, Brother MK1 and the Phantom Zone Projector both fit this description. Brother MK1 is a surveillance satellite that contains a hostile AI. It was created by a Quirkless vigilante and heavily modified by a couple of villains. The AI hates Quirks and if activated would try to kill everyone with one without any exceptions. It would probably kill many Quirkless people as well. Before you ask, robotics was probably the field that suffered the most during the Quirk wars, we can only create incredibly basic robots compared to what existed in the pre-Quirk era. The Phantom Zone Projector is admittedly a little bit harder to explain the danger of. It can open portals to a prison dimension. If someone has access to it, they have an easy way to get rid of foes and, if the prisoners are willing, some very powerful allies. I’m certain you can see how either of these being in the possession of a villain is a worrying idea.”

While the two had been talking, Shade had taken a brief look over the website. When he was done with his initial look through, he looked up and waited for Nezu to finish, “I may not be the best detective in the world, but I may be able to figure out some candidates, give me some time and I’ll come up with a list of who I think this could be. See you on Monday Mr. Midoriya. Nezu, I advise looking into anti-Zeta strategies as a precaution.”

With that, the meeting adjourned.

\----------

Izuku’s Sunday and Monday were uninteresting, one was a day where he just took notes on heroes and the other was just a normal weekday filled with schoolwork and angry blondes. After school ended, he evaded Bakugo and walked to the park. When he got there, he noticed that Shade was sitting on a bench, waiting for him. As Izuku sat down next to him he handed Izuku a folder and began to speak, “My friend says he would like to meet you at some point. He will probably show up to watch the sports festival, that sort of thing is right up his alley. As for your workout routine, he says you have to follow this workout and diet plan. I know that it requires you to clear the beach, although I don’t know how he knows about that. Before you start looking over that, let us make our way into the heap so I can give you your gear in private.”

Shade picked up a long rectangular box and a briefcase that had been sitting in the shadows next to the bench. The two of them stood and began to walk towards the entrance of the beach. After getting to the beach, the two of them walked down a path to a clearing in the junk. When they got there, Shade put down the box and opened it up, revealing the cosmic staff.

It looked just like it had in his dream. It had a set of buttons and was covered in small ridges. The staff looked like something out of a pre-Quirk comic Izuku had read once, he thought it had something to do with four people, but he wasn’t sure. But above all else, it was beautiful. 

“I want you to find a place where you can covertly train with this, don’t do it in the open. For now, this beach should serve you well, but once it is clean, it won’t do as a private training spot. Once you start at UA you could probably ask Nezu for a spot. Now allow me to teach you the basics of using the staff.” said Shade as he opened the briefcase and pulled out a small rod “I have admittedly minimal experience with these tools so please be somewhat patient.” 

He proceeded to give a thorough explanation of everything the cosmic technology could feasibly do as well as demonstrating its energy projection, absorption, force field creation, and telekinesis. He also mentioned that the staff, but not the rod, could receive mental commands from its user. 

The first thing Izuku tried was flying, it didn’t go very well.

\--------

Two months of physical training, practice, and various other lessons had passed. Clearing the beach had been going well, roughly a fifth of the trash had been moved, most of it smaller and lighter bits of junk. As a result of his training regimen Izuku had gotten slightly more muscular, although you would only know that if you really looked at him. He had also naturally grown marginally taller.

People had noticed that he had been exercising more, most people bought his explanation that he simply wanted to get into shape. Unfortunately for him, there were still a few people who didn’t believe him. One day after school, on his walk to the park, he got an unfortunate reminder of that as Bakugo stepped out of an alley, “Oi Deku, the fuck you think you’re doing, lying to my fucking face. You’re working out to get into the hero course so you can prove you aren’t the worthless shitstain that you clearly are. Not “to better yourself” or whatever bullshit you spew to those extras. Just-”

“I’m gonna interrupt you right there, I’ve told you this multiple times Kacchan, I’m not doing this to become a hero, I just want to get into shape.”

“Bullshit, I’ve known you for years and you ain’t the type to just give up on your dream. So what the fuck are you doing lying to me about it.”

“I’m not lying though, my dreams have changed, I want to become a Quirk analyst for a hero agency. I just realized I had a budding talent in the field and decided that I wanted to pursue it.”

“Like I said, bullshit. Your mom might believe you, but she always wanted you to pick a safer job so she’d like something like that. You’re a shit liar. Tell me or I kill you until you tell me.”

Izuku simply began to walk away, when he reached the corner of the road, he turned back, “You couldn’t beat that information out of me no matter how hard you tried.” This was followed by him turning on to the intersecting road and sprinting away, not noticing that a notebook fell out of his half-open backpack.

Bakugo was about to explode and chase him, until he noticed the notebook on the ground and grinned. He could destroy this to get back at Deku. Picking it up, he noticed it was untitled. He flipped through some of its pages. Incredibly confused about its contents, he voiced several questions, “Who the hell are these people? Superman, Green Lantern, Bane, Captain Cold, Robotman, Flash. Never heard of any of them. Where the hell is Deku getting these people from? Why are there nine entries for Starman and one for a Stargirl? Why does one of the Starmen have a section labeled dreams? Why are there no drawings? All his other books have drawings. Are they unphotographed underground heroes or something? I gotta whole lotta questions for Deku to answer.” 

\----------

“I-I can’t believe I did that. H-He’s going to kill me the next time he sees me. Oh God, he’s going to kill me. He’s going to come to my house and kill me.” Izuku’s heart was racing and it certainly wasn’t doing so because of him sprinting three city blocks, he ran much more than that on a daily basis. It was because he was certain he was going to meet a slow painful and grisly end whenever he next saw Bakugo.

When he composed himself, he began to walk towards the beach, thinking about going on patrol. It was a topic that had been discussed many times.Shade said he wouldn’t stop him from going out himself, but if Izuku could prove he was ready, Shade would help him. The two had agreed that passing a series of four tests on the abilities of the staff would be sufficient proof. Izuku had failed to do so three times. He was taking the test again today, but he was sure that this time would be different, he had developed a plan to pass the specific test that had given him problems in the past.

As usual, Shade had gotten to the beach before Izuku had and was waiting with the cosmic staff, which Izuku had given to him before he went to school in the morning. Izuku walked up, put his backpack down, opened the case, and began his warm-ups. 

Once he was finished with his warm-ups, he flew over to Shade and told him he was ready to start.

The first test was simple, Izuku had to fly from one point to another while evading small attacks from Shade, he had to do this without using the staff’s force fields. If he got hit, he failed. He lined up with the makeshift starting line and waited for the signal to start. When it came, he took off towards the goal, weaving between the small pieces of metal that had been thrown at him while blasting the larger pieces away. Noticing a series of shadows moving towards him, he dove behind a car near the goal, using it for cover. Noticing that the way towards the goal was currently clear, he rocketed towards it, reaching it and successfully passing the test.

The second test was a test of how well Izuku could use the energy blasts from the staff. He had to use them to hit a series of increasingly difficult targets to pass the test. The first few targets were immobile and fairly large. After that was where things began to get somewhat difficult, the targets would move behind cover, they also were smaller and moved much quicker than before. Izuku had never had problems passing this test. This time was no different.

The third test was a test of the staff’s telekinetic abilities. He would be given three objects and told to move them through a series of trials. This time the testing materials were a hubcap, a toilet, and a refrigerator. He had to move the hubcap through an obstacle course filled with hairpin turns and moving pieces of metal. In the second part, Shade would throw the toilet. Izuku had to catch the toilet and stop its momentum. This part was repeated several times at varying speeds. The third part was moving the refrigerator in a series of patterns. There really wasn’t much to this part. Izuku passed this test with flying colors.

The final test was a test of his defensive abilities. This test had very simple instructions, defend yourself, all abilities are usable. When Izuku asked him how to pass this test, Shade had said “Defend yourself for long enough and you’ll pass.” He had never managed to pass this test. 

As usual the test started out easy, slow moving, vaguely humanoid, shadow figures would advance towards where Izuku was, if they got close to him they would launch an attack and then disappear. He simply blasted them away. The difficulty ramped up in the second wave, the figures would start to throw little bits of trash and would move quicker and more erratically. He used a force field to block the various projectiles before they could hit him before blasting the remaining shadows. The third wave was consistently where Izuku failed. The figures would move even faster than the previous wave and would rapidly attack from multiple angles, frequently at the same time. When this phase started, he executed his new plan. He unleashed a blinding burst of light from the staff, destroying some of the targets and halting others. He quickly shot the remaining targets and set up a force field around himself, preparing for more.

Shade let out a laugh, “Congratulations, you pass.”

“Wait, that was all it took? I’ve survived longer than that before. Was an improvised flash attack meant to blind you?”

“No not exactly, I had specifically been making that last part of the test harder than I thought you could handle. I wanted to see if you could find a way out of a situation where you are in over your head. As a result, I had been making the tests slightly harder with each of your attempts.”

“Were there any other ways I could have passed?”

“Yes of course there were, three immediately come to mind, you could have attacked me, you could have successfully defended yourself, or you could have fled. While there are many ways to escape a difficult situation, yours was quite an effective one. A technique like that, as you likely know, could be used to disorient your opponents. It could also potentially interact with their Quirks. Against me, for example, such an ability would prove invaluable as my power comes from what shadows exist, shadows a burst of light would briefly remove.”

“I see.”

“Would Saturday at 21:00 work for patrol?”

“I’ll see you then.”

\----------

Izuku couldn’t focus on anything other than his first patrol for his entire Saturday. He was convinced that something huge, like a fight with a major villain, would happen. As a result of this belief, he was both nervous and excited. About fifteen minutes before he and Shade would meet, he grabbed his costume and staff from where he had hid them under his bed and got dressed. 

His costume mostly consisted of some lightweight body armor that he wore underneath a bomber jacket and a pair of cargo pants. He also wore a pair of gloves, welding goggles, an aviator hat, and whatever shoes he felt like wearing. He had designed the costume so it would cover his hair and eyes and therefore make it harder to recognize him. It was deliberately slightly different, but still somewhat similar, than the style of clothing he usually wore, this was also done to deflect suspicion off of him.

He took a deep breath before stepping out of his window and onto the fire escape. Once outside, he flew to the roof of the building to meet Shade who, like usual, was waiting for him. “If something goes poorly and it appears that someone will die or get seriously injured, I will interfere. Now, do you have a route you’re going to patrol?”

“I think I’m going to follow a spiral pattern starting from the center of town making detours as necessary to avoid heroes and the police before ending at my house.”

“Very well. You go on ahead, I’ll follow behind you.”

The two of them began their journey to the center of town in total silence.

\----------

Let it be known that Musutafu is not an eventful town, most criminals tend to not hang around areas with large amounts of pro heroes and pro heros in training. As a result, the presence of a decently sized and prestigious hero school tends to lead to a sharp drop in crime in the surrounding area. Because of the low crime rate, Izuku did very little during his first patrol and was therefore somewhat disappointed. He had given one man directions to a homeless shelter, called a ride for two different drunks, and seen one mugging that, before he could interfere, had been stopped by someone he thought was Eraserhead, although he wasn’t sure.

Izuku was momentarily distracted, as a result, he almost missed someone being grabbed and dragged into an alleyway by what appeared to be a very long arm. Assuming it was a mugging, he flew down towards the alley. As he landed at the end of the alley, he noticed a very drunk man, who must’ve had some sort of arm-lengthening Quirk had his arm wrapped around the neck of whoever he had grabbed. The man was armed with a knife, and a large quantity of anti-mutation slogans. He was telling his prospective victim a series of slurred, violent threats, the most notable of which was “I’ll cut yer ears off you little freak girl.”

As soon as he heard this particular threat, Izuku acted. He shot an energy blast at the man, hitting him in the head and knocking him away from the girl. This was followed by the use of his telekinesis to get the girl away from the man. He followed this with a question “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head.

“In that case, can you please get out of here and call the police.”

Unfortunately for Izuku, the man recovered fairly quickly and used his extended arm like a whip in an attempt to knock him down. Izuku brought up a force field to defend himself. In response to this, the man slurred, “Oh ya got some sort a weird-ass Quirk. I bet part of ya is from a freaky mutie Quirk too. S’ the only reason I could’a thought fer someon’ to help one a ya type.”

“Sir, I don’t have a mutation as part of my Quirk.” Izuku said as he stood up. He had decided that he would imply that he had a quirk when asked, but wouldn’t outright say whether or not he did.

“Mm don’t believe ya. “ The man used his Quirk to extend his knife hand in an attempt to stab Izuku. Izuku swung the staff upwards, diverting the attack and knocking the knife out of his hand. Izuku hit him with another energy blast. Stumbling back, the man took a syringe out of his pocket and yelled “I wanna get home real quick so I’m gonna kill the two of ya real quick. s’ Trigger time ya fuckin’ muties.” He then stabbed the syringe, filled with what was presumably Trigger, into his arm.

All of a sudden the man’s arms coiled out farther and farther as he used his Quirk to attempt to trap Izuku and the girl, who hadn't had enough time to get away. Thinking quickly, Izuku realized that the more the man extended his arms the more carefully he had to think about not tangling his arms. If the man had been sober, he likely wouldn’t have had a problem with this. However, he was, based on his slurred speech and stumbling movements, very drunk. This drunkenness very likely weakened his motor skills and impaired his judgement. On top of this, the Trigger was also presumably reacting to the alcohol in his system, further inhibiting his motor skills. 

Izuku rushed towards the girl, grabbing her and flying upwards. He hoped that forcing the man’s focus on a singular mobile target instead of the locations of his arms would allow Izuku to tie an improvised knot.

The man took the bait and extended his arms further in an attempt to catch the two of them. Izuku dived behind the man before flying upwards again, the man’s arms followed. This resulted in him crossing his arms in a blind attempt to grab his target. Izuku followed this with a bright burst of light directly in front of the man’s face. The man groaned out “one a ya did sumtin ta me didn’t ya, my head feels like shit.” 

The girl laughed “That’s probably from the time you got hit on the head, you idiot.”

The man slurred something unintelligible in response. Then he went on the offensive again, extending his limbs, which were still behind him, under his armpits and in the general direction of the two of them. 

Izuku repeated his maneuver of flying up and diving behind his foe, the man did the same thing in response. Instead of a flash of light, Izuku flew in front of him and hovered for a moment before flying upward and in a loop above his head. Following this maneuver resulted in the man getting trapped in a very loose knot, the man swore and began to retract his arms in an attempt to escape. 

While he was distracted trying to free himself, Izuku beaned him with the staff and knocked him out. Despite being unconscious, the man’s arms kept retracting.

He landed and set the girl down, “S-sorry for picking you up without asking.” He got a good look at the girl now that he wasn’t in the middle of some action. She had short, dark purple hair and was a vaguely punk outfit.

“It’s fine, you got me out of a pretty bad situation. Which, thanks for that by the way, I’m not sure what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up.” The girl said. 

“Um, y-you’re welcome.” Izuku said, looking away

“So, is this level of awkwardness normal for you or is it unique to me?”

“I-Its normal, um, not that you're not unique or, oh god what am I saying.”

The girl laughed “It's fine, I was just messing with you. So who are you? I’ve never seen you before, are you a new hero? 

“I’m, uh, a vigilante so if you could, please don’t tell the police too much about me. Also if you haven’t done it yet, could you please call the police, I’ll stay around until they arrive just in case he wakes up, although that seems unlikely. I don’t have a phone so I can’t call them.” 

“Ok, I can do that.”

The girl called the police, thankfully mentioning that she hadn’t gotten a good look at whoever had helped her. Izuku waited until he could faintly hear sirens. When he could hear them, he began to fly off. His flight was interrupted by a yelled question from the girl, “Wait! Do you think someone with a useless Quirk like mine could become a hero?”

Izuku responded. “I’ll tell you what I think, but please make it quick. What’s your Quirk?”

“I can hear pretty well and can plug these things into stuff and hear or pulse my heartbeat through it.”

“T-that’s a cool Quirk, you could use it really well on rescue missions and depending on how strong your heartbeat pulses are, you could also have some pretty solid offensive capabilities. That’s not a weak Quirk at all. You can be a hero.” Izuku had successfully managed to prevent himself from going into a muttering spree about her Quirk, he suspected the threat of being arrested helped.

Smiling, she said “You could’ve just said yes or no dude. But thanks for that.”

Izuku nodded and continued to fly away. Nothing happened for the brief remainder of his patrol.

Upon returning to his apartment building, he landed and, turning to a dark corner of the roof, asked “Why didn’t you step in during that fight? Me and the girl almost got hurt.”

Walking out of the shadows, Shade said, “I almost did, but then you managed to resolve it. In doing so, there were many things you did well, for example you executed a successful plan based on limited information. You did make a few decisions that were somewhat questionable, however. You could have simply tied the man’s arms into a knot using your telekinesis. You could have flown the girl out of there instead of keeping her in a somewhat dangerous situation. You could have simply pressed the attack and taken the man down. But overall you did a fine job for a first outing as a masked vigilante. I have seen much worse happen to much more prepared people. The rest of your patrol went well.”

“Thanks? Is this really the time for criticising me though?”

“No perhaps it isn’t. Good night Mr. Midoriya.”

“Good night.”

\----------

From then on Izuku would go on patrol every week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and the weekend. While school breaks happened, he would go out every day of the week. As a result of these increased patrols, he had attracted attention from both local pro heroes and the police. Over the course of the four months following his first patrol, he had gained a reputation for quick escapes and having a mystery Quirk. A mystery Quirk that behaved like it was multiple Quirks.

\----------

Detective Tsukauchi was stumped, there didn’t seem to be a consistent explanation for the abilities demonstrated by the new local vigilante he had recently been put in charge of tracking down. The Quirks that the mystery vigilante had been recorded as showing included flight, force fields, energy absorption, energy blasts related to some sort of staff, telekinesis, and, on one occasion, shadow based teleportation. Although some of those possible Quirks could be one Quirk being used in multiple ways. All were potentially powerful Quirks that reports indicated the vigilante was skilled at using. Even using the Quirk registry in an attempt to figure out the vigilante’s identity had been a bust, three people with any of those Quirks in a hundred miles matched the descriptions of “boy, probably a teenager, carrying a weapon of some sort, with middling height, and a lanky frame.” that he had gotten from most witnesses. Unfortunately, all three of them had alibis for multiple sightings. To make things even harder, he hadn’t been present to talk to many of the early witnesses so he wasn’t even sure if all of the information he had was correct.

He was certain that the Naruhata vigilantes' case was why he had been assigned to this one, unfortunately, the two cases were very different. That had been three vigilantes who weren’t anywhere near as secretive as this one had been so far. Even then, their Quirks could be explained to the courts without invoking the mythical nemesis of one of his best friends. A nemesis that was thought to be dead.

He had been working on a plan to capture the vigilante, he just needed to figure out who he should get to help him. He knew that he would need Aizawa’s help, the warp Quirk could ruin any attempt at capture without a plan to deal with it, and Aizawa could get rid of that problem fairly easily. However, he couldn’t decide whether to get help from Sorahiko or Toshinori, both were good choices in case something went wrong and he needed the vigilante to be subdued, but he wasn’t sure who would be a better choice. Sorahiko was more level-headed, but not nearly as powerful, a huge contrast to Toshinori’s greater power and more impulsive nature. Making his decision, he texted Aizawa that he would need his help for a case and that the two of them would be met by another hero. Then he took a deep breath, pulled up his contacts, and called a number. After the man on the other end picked up, he said “Toshinori, I have some bad news. I need your help, we have a new local vigilante, he’s displayed multiple Quirks. The only explanation I can come up with is that All For One is still alive and still giving people Quirks.”

\----------

Today started as a fine day, but from the moment I woke up, I could tell that something had changed. I soon found that something strange had happened, all objects related to costumed heroes of any sort had disappeared overnight. I soon found, after questioning those on the street, that this disappearance extended to people’s knowledge. I decided to seek the help of Mr. Dibny, seeing as he is a far greater detective than I, in doing so, I found that he too was affected by whatever strange thing had gripped the city and could not even remember his own past as a costumed adventurer. My darling Hope was quite the same, no memory of the exploits of myself, Mikaal, Ted, Jack, or even Superman. Afraid, I ventured out to question others. Garrick, Rice, Whitmore and even Jack himself also had missing chunks of memories related to heroics. Oddly enough, when I decided to try to find out if a few prior acquaintances remembered, I found an odd crew of villains who appeared to remember the heroes just fine, they told me that Bowin, who I had been looking for, had died while on a mission with them. I fear I may be one of the few people with memories of before, but panicking about that will no one any good, I must see who I can find that also remembers, I shall start by looking for the Martian. I also intend to find out how or why I have been exempted from this memory loss. If possible, I should endeavor to set things back to the way they were. - The Shade’s Journals - 10/12/05

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on give some DC characters short interlude chapters to explain what happened to them. Most of the characters referenced as being in Izuku's notebook are currently planned to get one. However, my plans change constantly, I have a loose skeleton of how I want things to go but small things tend to change.
> 
> If you have any questions about DC lore that I use, feel free to ask.


	3. Bright

\----------

Izuku felt that his patrol had been abnormally uninteresting. The main reason for this was that Musutafu felt empty, the UA students were on break, so they weren't around. On top of that, fewer pros than normal were out tonight, he hadn’t seen some of the pros that he usually did, Eraserhead in particular was conspicuously absent. Shade wasn’t in Musutafu, he had stopped accompanying him on his patrols after the second month. Instead, he had given him a device that let off a distress signal for Izuku to use if he was in serious danger. And to top it off, it was a weekday, so not many people were out late at night. All these factors combined made for a fairly uneventful patrol. He hadn’t even had to give someone directions, he did that at least once every other time he had gone out. As a result of nothing really happening Izuku’s thoughts began to wander.

He was almost done with his patrol when he nearly missed a huge man in a grey trench coat and helmet holding a man in a beige trench coat at knife-point. His mental analysis of the second Red Tornado came to a screeching halt. He had a mugging to stop. He swooped down to intercept. 

When he dropped below roof level, the staff suddenly cut out and he crashed to the ground. The two men began to quickly move towards Izuku, the big man pocketing the knife. He activated his distress signal and began to sprint away. Before he could reach the street, the big man appeared in his path, picked him up, and held him at what he assumed was eye level. 

“You won’t get away that easily villain! Not until you tell us about how you use multiple Quirks. Did you get them from someone?”

Oh crap, he recognized that voice, the man in the helmet was All Might, All Might had caught him, and All Might wanted to know about Shade. “I mean he said he knew you, but he also said that it was a private matter between you, him, and your teacher, so I didn’t pry into it.”

All Might looked at the tan-coated man who responded with a nod. 

“How did you meet this man, young villain? What Quirks did he give to you?”

“He walked up to me after school and said I had potential, and then the two of us met and talked about it and he brought me to a meeting with the principal of UA.”

All Might looked at the other man again. When the man nodded, he asked a follow-up question. “Where on the grounds did you go?”

“We went to this building that looked like it wasn’t used, I don’t really know how to describe it, but it was kinda like a big house made out of stone. It was kinda off of the main path too.”

The man nodded yet again. “Does this man have a name?”

“Indeed I do Mr. Yagi, and you already know it.” Shade walked out of the dark entryway of a nearby building. “Please unhand my student, while I can see why you would think he might, he has no relation to your nemesis." 

All Might let go of Izuku and frantically began to wave his arms. While he was distracted, Izuku picked up the staff and ran over to Shade. "I-I'm so sorry Mr. Swift, I didn't know, if I had I wouldn't have gone after him. Believe me, I wouldn’t have done it."

"Pull yourself together, I assumed that this was a misunderstanding. Now, I have been meaning to talk to you about your big fight. Shall we go elsewhere and have a discussion? Your friends are also invited, provided you trust them.”

All Might gestured to the man in the tan trench coat. "I trust Detective Tsukauchi. He knows Eraserhead better than I do but from what I’ve heard about him he’s trustworthy." 

The detective seemed to think for a moment. "I trust him, he can keep a secret. Back to the important topics, who is this guy? How do you know him? Is he trustworthy?”

“He’s from America. Most of the top heroes there are familiar with him, your sister’s boss included. If something major happens near Opal City, he just shows up and then either helps or lectures you. It’s a tossup. Immortality is a side effect of his Quirk. As a result, there are pretty good odds that he knows whatever secret .”

“We met when your boxing teacher decided that you needed more varied sparring partners and called me.”

"Yes that too.” 

The detective seemed relieved. “I assume he is aware of you-know-what?”

Shade nodded. “I do indeed, I have a special distaste for that specific villain. He has menaced friends and acquaintances of mine. In fact, it’s a major reason he stopped working in the open.”

The detective sighed. “I guess going with him isn’t the dumbest thing you’ve dragged me into. Eraserhead, you coming?”

A shabby man, who Izuku vaguely remembered from somewhere, jumped down from a nearby rooftop. “I suppose I should, Nezu trusted him enough to let him onto UA grounds while there were students there. If I don’t, I feel like Nezu will somehow force me to learn whatever gets talked about.” 

“Shall we get going then?"

“Yes. But first, I have something to say to my pupil, I shall come back for the three of you in a moment.” Shade gestured to Izuku and his vision went black for a moment as he was teleported. When it came back, he and Shade were in a lavish sitting room. “When the other three get here, I would suggest you unmask yourself, but only if you are comfortable doing so. If it makes a difference, I think Eraserhead already knows.”

Izuku absentmindedly nodded and clutched the staff. As he thought over what he would do, Shade brought the others in one big group. “Sit down, make yourself comfortable. Before we begin, does anyone want anything to drink?” 

Once everyone was sitting and had whatever they had requested, Shade picked up his glass, took a sip, and turned to Izuku. 

He took a deep breath and pulled off his hat and goggles. “My name is Izuku Midoriya, I’m Quirkless, all my abilities come from the staff.”

Upon hearing this, All Might beamed. “Young Midoriya, why do you want to become a hero?”

“I want to help people, to inspire them, to make them smile.”

“In that case-”

Shade interrupted him. “At least explain it first.”

The detective covered his mouth to hide his laugh.

Eraserhead’s reaction was a little less subdued. “How old are you? What exactly can the staff do?”

“I’m fifteen. The staff allows me to use telekinesis, absorb energy, create force fields, and fire energy blasts.”

Tsukauchi laughed. “Same age as your students with more training than when they first go on internships. It wouldn’t be logical to get mad about him being a vigilante.”

Eraserhead glared at him. “Let’s just get to the point.”

Tsukauchi turned to All Might “Just one more thing Shota. Toshinori, I don’t know how long this will be and I know that if I don’t say anything you won’t do anything, but, please don’t strain yourself. Midoriya already trusted us with his identity. The least you can do is trust the people in this room.”

Izuku looked on, shocked, as All Might disappeared into a cloud of steam. At the shocked looks on Izuku and Eraserhead’s faces, he spoke. “I’ll explain myself in a moment.” He turned to Shade. “What do you want to know Mr. Swift?.”

“I want to know about your fight with All For One, but you should probably give your explanation first.”

All Might nodded and turned back to Izuku and Eraserhead. “Tell me Mr. Midoriya, Eraserhead, are the two of you familiar with prime minister Shigaraki?” 

Eraserhead answered before Izuku could. “Yes I am. He served two terms as prime minister, was supposedly the first prime minister with a Quirk, he was also supposedly a war hero from one of the Quirk wars, there are no known pictures of him, and if he did have a Quirk, what exactly it did is unknown. Why are you asking?” 

“He’s very important to this story. Shigaraki did indeed have a Quirk. He could take the Quirks of others and use or give them at will. He used this to take control of Japan, after he got out of office, he established a massive criminal empire that controlled most of Japan.”

Izuku was curious. "Did he continue to influence the government?”

"He bribed a couple of politicians and created a couple of departments that he was pretty much in control of, I believe the Quirk registry was one of them. Anyway, he had a brother who was thought to be Quirkless, All For One, which was Shigaraki’s villain name, gave him a strength enhancer and locked him up. Eventually the brother escaped and the two of them fought. This fight resulted in his brother dying, but not before he passed his Quirk on to someone else. He had a stockpiling Quirk that could be passed on, this Quirk merged with the strength enhancer. This Quirk, which is called One For All, has had eight wielders before me, all of them have fought Shigaraki and all but me have died doing so. I did not have a Quirk before it was given to me. At some point early on, Shade became aware of this and has occasionally helped past users, in fact he’s the reason we know it All For One was Shigaraki.”

Izuku sat up straight. “Were you going to offer me One For All?”

“Yes, I was. You remind me of myself.”

“No thank you. I want to prove that Quirkless people can be heroes.”

Eraserhead grunted. “While this is fascinating, I would like to know what happened to Shigaraki. The two of you can discuss this later.”

"I was getting to that. We encountered each other in the mountains, this was about five years ago. We fought and he severely damaged my lungs and stomach. In retaliation I hit him twice with my full power before passing out and nearly dying. Recovery Girl operated on me and managed to save my life at the cost of some organs. The hero who recovered me told me that he could only find a tattered suit and a large amount of blood splattered around where we had fought. I know there is a chance that he has survived, but since there has been no evidence of him doing anything, I believe that he’s likely dead. Anyway, after that fight I’ve been reduced to being a hero for roughly three hours a day, and even then I’m much slower and weaker than I used to be.”

The room was silent for a moment, Eraserhead broke the silence with a question. “And if he’s not?”

“If he’s alive he’s definitely seriously injured and is likely gathering resources in the shadows. If he’s hiding he’d be hard to track down. After all, successfully hiding for about one hundred ad fifty years does tend to make you fairly good at it.”

This time, Shade broke the silence. "Based on what you said earlier, I'm assuming you're looking for a successor?”

"Yes I am. I'm going to be teaching first year heroics at UA. Because of that, Eraserhead would have found out about my weakened state, although he wouldn’t have learned about my Quirk."

“Do you think you will need help with your hunt?”

“I probably will. If you’re offering help, I could also use any teaching advice you have.”

“I have a journal that has a fair amount of my experiences helping heroes, I’ll lend it to you. I shall also talk to Nezu about getting a job to help narrow down which students you would likely deem worthy, as well as perhaps helping all of them with Quirk development. I would also advise you to gather those who know you are in need of a successor once you have several candidates in order to receive their feedback on your candidates.”

All Might just nodded in response. “Thank you for your advice. You should probably tell Tsukauchi and Eraserhead who you are.”

Shade nodded then proceeded to give an explanation of his past to the gathered men, it was remarkably similar to the explanation he had given Izuku.

“Who knows about One For All? Who knows about these old heroes?” Asked Eraserhead.

All Might answered first. “Outside of the people in this room, I know that Nezu, Recovery Girl, Sir Nighteye, and my homeroom teacher from when I was at UA know.”

“Who was your homeroom teacher?”

“Gran Torino was.”

Izuku was confused, he had learned most things about All Might but had never heard of Gran Torino. “Who’s Gran Torino?”

“A pro hero who was a friend of Nana Shimura, who was the One For All user before me.”

Shade chose to answer Eraserhead’s question during the lull following All Might’s response. “Nezu knows, but aside from him, you are fairly unlikely to encounter very many of those who do. The only ones I can think of who would have any reason to meet anyone in this room would be two of my friends, Ted and Adam. Ted has expressed interest in meeting Mr. Midoriya here and Adam very much wants to harm All For One. There is a mysterious conspiracy theorist known as Djinn who likely knows at least some information. Beyond that, I believe that Captain Celebrity, and possibly Hawks have the capabilities to figure it out on their own.”

“Well, what do you know about Djinn?” Asked Tsukauchi.

“Not much. Me and Nezu have been looking into him during what free time we have, and we haven’t found very much. Most of what we know about him comes from a couple of old posts on his website. One is a brief description of his day. From that, we managed to figure out that at the time he was a recluse from somewhere near New Orleans with a Quirk that somehow affects his appearance. The other post, the oldest one on the website, referenced a friend named Rudy moving to Japan for business years prior. We were planning to tell Mr. Midoriya this at the meeting we would have had on Sunday.”

“I see, why do you think the other two might know?”

“Chris and Ted once fought a villain called Gentleman Ghost. During the fight Chris got pretty much all of the necessary information, he just has to put it together. However, explaining why Hawks might know would take a very long time. It's incredibly complicated and I don’t quite understand it. The very simplified explanation is that he is currently believed to be the reincarnation of a hero from that era.”

“I see. Out of curiosity, what exactly led to you deciding to take a student?” Asked All Might.

“I found and read one of his notebooks, he had a drawing of the staff in it. I questioned him on how he found out about it, we eventually got to talking about his desire to become a hero. I saw the potential in him and talked to him, eventually we talked to Nezu and he became my pupil. There’s more to it, but it isn’t my place to say it.”

Eraserhead spoke up. “What notebooks? Neither of you have mentioned any notebooks.”

Izuku responded. “Oh, I keep notes on heroes, I have about fourteen of them on heroes that have been active during my lifetime. I had one on people Shade told me about, but I lost it a few months ago. It just kinda disappeared and the only explanation I can come up with seems kinda weird.”

Tsukauchi sat up straight, a big smile on his face, he was clearly excited at the prospect of a mystery. “Well, what do you think happened to it?” 

“It disappeared right after I talked to this guy who doesn’t really like me and has a special dislike for my notes. I kinda think he has it. Although considering how long it’s been since it disappeared, I feel like if he did have it, he probably would have done something by this point. I’ve looked for it all around places I frequent and it wasn’t in any of them.”

Tsukauchi nodded, his curiosity temporarily satiated. 

“I do have another question actually, Midoriya, what exactly are you learning?” Said Eraserhead.

Izuku sat up straight. “I’ve been analyzing older heroes that he tells me about, learning how to deal with villains and disaster scenarios, how to act confident, and general skills with the staff. Oh, and one of his friends gave me an exercise plan that involves me cleaning Dagobah beach. I’m slowly but surely getting there.”

“So you don’t know how to fight at close range?"

Izuku shook his head. “No, I don’t.”

“Do you have any free days?”

“I don’t do anything on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

Eraserhead pulled a pen and a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote something on it. "Meet me at this address after your school ends next Tuesday. Provided you have potential, I’ll teach you."

Confused, Izuku sputtered out a quiet "Thanks?"

"Don’t thank me yet, if you have potential, it’ll be hell.”

Tsukauchi let out a small laugh at this interaction and took Eraserhead’s pen. He then pulled a business card out of one of his pockets and scrawled a phone number on the back. “Anyway, since we’re helping you, I might as well give you this. I wrote my personal phone number on the back. Save this number and call me tomorrow morning. Don’t text me on it. If you need to know something, ask me and I’ll do my best to get the information to you.”

Eraserhead interrupted the conversation. “Naomasa, we should probably go back soon. I think the police will start to get concerned if we're out hunting a vigilante for too long, especially since I’m willing to bet they know who our third man was.”

Izuku had one last question to ask. “Before you go, I have one more question for All Might. Do you think I can become the first Quirkless pro?”

All Might seemed to think over his answer for a moment before buffing up. “That depends on several factors, as you are right now, I believe you can absolutely do it. Had I met you before you started training, I might have said otherwise, even though saying otherwise may be a little hypocritical of me.”

Izuku began crying tears of joy. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

\----------

Tuesday came and Izuku was excited. He was ready to learn. On Saturday, Izuku had looked up the address Eraserhead had given him. It was the location of a small neighborhood gym located near the edge of Musutafu. 

As soon as school had ended, he evaded Bakugo and ran to a nearby train station and boarded the local train that would take him the closest to his destination. He stayed on for a few stops, pacing up and down the shockingly empty train car and muttering up a storm. When the train stopped, he walked a block to the gym. He could see Eraserhead through the window, he was leaning on the wall in a corner of the gym that was covered in exercise mats.

Izuku walked into the gym and up to him. When he saw Izuku, Eraserhead gave his instructions. "Call me Aizawa in public. Go change into your exercise clothes if you have them. Do it quickly, I don't want to waste time."

Izuku nodded and went to the locker room and changed. When he walked back to Aizawa, Aizawa began his lessons. "Throw a punch whenever you’re ready to start, I need to see something."

Izuku obliged, Aizawa looked at his fist for a moment. “Ok, now kick." 

After about five minutes of him calling out attacks for Izuku to do and him analyzing them, Aizawa called for a break. "Take a break kid, you have potential. And now that I know that, I need to think about how best to do this."

Izuku turned to his backpack and pulled out his water bottle. Taking a drink and looking around, he made eye contact with a short black-haired girl on the running equipment. The girl quickly looked away, her expression unchanging. Izuku turned to Aizawa. “Aizawa, I think there’s someone watching us”

“You just noticed? She’s been watching the two of us since we started. I guess I have something else to teach you. You should learn to pay more attention to your surroundings. It can be the difference between life or death. If she’s a threat, she’s less likely to act with both of us here and aware of her.”

“I see. Anyway, what’s next?”

“I’m going to teach you how to actually punch and kick, your form is subpar. After that, you'll be practicing that until I’m satisfied. If that happens today, I might begin to teach you a style that should work for you.”

After an hour of corrections, they took another break. Neither of them needed the break so Izuku was initially confused, he understood why when he saw that the girl had walked up to the two of them. Upon seeing that the two of them had stopped practicing and were looking at her expectantly, she took a deep breath and asked a question. “What are you doing?” 

Aizawa spoke up before Izuku could. “I’m a pro hero, he chases hero fights. He’s been caught by villains a few too many times, so I decided to teach him how to defend himself.” 

The girl nodded. “Can you help me then? I want to learn.”

“Why?” 

“I am applying to UA.”

“Hero course?”

The girl nodded.

“I suppose teaching you would be logical. You watched the entire thing, correct?”

Another nod.

“Then show me how you punch.”

While looking at her form, he gave instructions to Izuku. “Midoriya, don’t just stand there. I want you to practice punching and kicking while we do this.”

Izuku nodded and moved over to a nearby punching bag.

Aizawa repeated his earlier test, occasionally stopping to correct Izuku’s form. When it was over, he turned to the girl. “If you want to continue, meet us here on Tuesdays and Thursdays after your school ends, I’ll teach both of you. For now, let’s fix your form, it’s better than Midoriya’s, but not by a whole lot. It's still clear you haven't done this before. Midoriya, just keep practicing.”

This continued for about half an hour. After that, Aizawa called it off. ”I think that’s enough of this for now. Before we all leave, you should probably know everybody's names, I’m Aizawa.”

Izuku stepped forward He had been psyching himself for this. “I-I’m Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you.”

The girl had a soft smile on her face. “Yui Kodai, likewise.”

\----------

These meetings remained simple until one cloudy Tuesday late in October. While he was leaving school, Izuku was distracted by his thoughts of the previous night. He had encountered a villain with a weak smoke producing Quirk and, as a result, was debating the merits of somehow adding a gas mask to his costume. His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice. "Oi Deku, the fuck is this notebook. I couldn’t find any goddamn info on any of these extras."

Izuku did his best to not panic. “Oh, that’s what happened to my notebook. Can I please have it back?”

“Not until you explain what the fuck it is.”

“They’re hypothetical heroes that I use to practice my analysis. Can I please have it back? I have a train to catch.”

“Where are you getting these heroes from Deku? You reference someone telling you stories about them on the first page. Who the fuck is it?”

“I don’t have time to answer that right now, the last train was already delayed, I need to get to this one quickly. Please give it back.”

“Not until you tell me who’s telling you this shit.” Yelled Bakugo.

“Fine.” As Izuku ran past him towards the train station, Bakugo seethed. Deku was predictable, he could find the nerd later and get his answers then. As he began to stomp away, a foolproof plan came to him, he could follow Deku and, hopefully, find out what he wanted to know. 

He ran after Deku, reaching the train station just in time to see Deku walking into a crowded train car. He barely managed to get into the same train car as his target. Once inside, he stepped behind a couple of tall businessmen and kept an eye on the exit, ducking behind other people whenever his cover moved. 

They stayed on the train for about ten minutes, when they arrived at the stop before UA, Deku stood and walked out of the train, Bakugo followed close behind. He watched as Deku turned and walked into a gym. Confused, he found an angle where he could see into the gym and still be somewhat hidden from its occupants. 

In the gym, Deku was talking to some guy in shabby clothing and some plain girl with a bob cut. They did some stretches before they nodded to each other and started to fight. Bakugo was livid, Deku was learning to fight, probably because Deku was still trying to become a hero and had lied to his face. He was going to kill Deku later. At least it looked like the girl was beating the shit out of Deku.

He was surprised when two people walked into the gym and up to Deku and his pals. They looked familiar, but he couldn’t place who they were. He watched as Deku started to, presumably, mumble up a storm over them. This only increased his anger, Deku only freaked out like that about heroes. Deku was not only still trying to upstage him, but he was trying to do it with the help of some nobodies. This couldn’t stand, he was going in.

\----------

Present Mic and Midnight were in a rush. Their friend and coworker had taken to disappearing after school ended two days a week and they were justifiably concerned by his uncharacteristic behavior. They had decided to follow him and see what he was up to, just in case he was in trouble. 

When the school day began to draw to a close, they both dismissed their last class early, changed into disguises, and left the grounds through the main entryway. Moments after the final bell rang, Aizawa walked through the gates. His friends followed behind him. They would occasionally stop and look at a storefront or building, one of them always had an eye on him.

Eventually they had to dart into an alleyway when Aizawa turned and walked into a building. Midnight counted to thirty and stepped out of the alley to take a look, after a moment, she gestured for Present Mic to follow her. They walked across the street and looked into the gym just in time to see two kids walk up to Aizawa and talk to him for a moment before they began to stretch. When the two kids had finished stretching and had begun to spar, they turned to each other, made eye contact, nodded, and walked into the building.

Izuku and Yui had just finished their warm-ups and had begun sparring, when, all of a sudden, someone yelled. “Hey! Shota! Taking on kids outside of your class? Doesn’t seem all that logical to me. I wonder what Emi would think about it? ”

In response, Aizawa sighed and somehow slouched more than he usually did. “Midoriya, Kodai, these are two pro hero acquaintances of mine, Midnight and Present Mic.”

Midoriya instantly began muttering about how cool he thought the two of them were. Present Mic smiled. “Good to know one of my friends' kids is a fan of mine. Nice to meet the two of you.” 

Midnight was much more excited. “Oh how cute. Aizawa can I have some fun?”

Aizawa sighed yet again. “No you can’t. He’s still in training. He isn’t ready for someone of your skill yet.”

“What about the other one?” Yui stepped behind Izuku, clearly unnerved by having Midnight’s attention.

“No.” 

Present Mic walked over to Aizawa and threw an arm around his shoulders. “Kids be happy, it seems like Mr. Sleepyhead here genuinely likes the two of you.”

Aizawa gently pushed Mic away from him. “Please at least try with your stupid nicknames.”

“You aren't even going to deny it? Does that take too much effort or something?”

The playful banter was interrupted by a furious yell. “Deku! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Everyone watched as Bakugo stormed up to Izuku. “You lied to my face, you’re still training to become a hero and some pros are part of it.” He turned to Present Mic and Midnight, and, apparently not recognizing them in their disguises, growled. “They may be pros that nobody knows or cares about, but still, why would they waste their time on you? You can’t be a hero. You-”

Aizawa grabbed his arm and pulled him away from Izuku. Shooting a glance at the other pros, he attempted to calm Bakugo down. “He didn’t lie to you, he isn’t training to become a hero. He told me he wants to become an analyst. I’m very good at getting the truth out of people. Do you seriously think that a middle school student is a better liar than the con artists and criminals that I deal with? Now, I’m assuming you want to be a hero. Is that assumption correct?”

“Of fucking course it is.”

“Do you want to go to UA?”

“Obviously.”

“You just made your job significantly harder.”

“How the fuck did I do that?” 

“You walked in here yelling about how Midoriya was trying to become a hero, despite the fact that he has apparently told you this is not the case. You immediately assumed that the pros were here to train him, they came here because of me, they didn’t know he was here. I am not teaching Midoriya to become a hero. I’m teaching him because he’s been following me around at night and has been taken hostage too many times for me to be comfortable with it. Kodai is the one who wants to become a hero, not him. However the real damning thing is that you did this in front of three UA teachers. These two help grade the entrance exams and I teach the first year students, and you just made a bad first impression.”

“You think I wouldn’t make it? My Quirk guarantees I’ll pass the entrance exam.”

“I don’t care about your Quirk. It doesn’t matter. Knuckleduster was Quirkless and he regularly beat villains with very strong Quirks. I do care about your attitude, which is terrible. You’re incredibly hostile and jumped to conclusions based on preconceived notions. These are not good traits for pro heroes to have, they make people unwilling to work.” 

Bakugo growled and began to walk away, Izuku ran after him. When he caught up to Bakugo he asked a question. “Can I please have my notebook back?’

Bakugo scowled and shoved the notebook into Izuku’s hands. “Fine. Take the fucking thing.”

As Izuku walked back to the group, Aizawa noticed the notebook. “Is that the book you lost?”

“Yeah, he had it.”

“And he didn’t return it for a few months?”

“Yep.”

“Why? Does he avoid you or something?”

“Nope, we’re in the same class, we sit close to each other.”

Aizawa frowned. “Then why wouldn’t he return it?”

Kodai spoke up. “Maybe he read it.”

“That’s possible, but still, that’s not good. He's currently a strong candidate for day one expulsion.”

Kodai and Midoriya looked alarmed at the sheer casualness Aizawa spoke with. 

Present Mic noticed their expressions and laughed. “Oh you don’t have anything to worry about. Shota doesn’t actually permanently expel students, he’s really a super caring teacher, albeit in his own way.”

“Shut up Yamada.”

“He just leaves them to stew and regret doing whatever set him off for a few hours before he shows up at their house and tells them that it was a logical ruse and he expects better from them.”

Aizawa walked over to Mic and put him in a headlock, a very faint smile on his face. “I have a potential student here, don’t tell all my secrets.”

Midnight smiled and adopted the pose of the thinker. “We could always tell her more and then give her to Sekijiro”

“Please don’t.”

“Ok, I won’t tell them how much you love cats, or how you have a-”

Aizawa put his free hand over her mouth to shut her up. “That’s enough. We’ve wasted too much time. Midoriya, what condition is the notebook in?”

“A few of the pages are a little beat up but it’s generally fine. I think Kodai was right, he read it. Why else would the page on the Human Bomb have water damage?”

“I’m assuming that this is somehow related to his Quirk?”

“He sweats nitroglycerin.”

“I see. Midoriya, Kodai, get back to your sparring.” After a moment he added a comment. “Nemuri, I know you just licked my hand, you probably don’t want to do that.”

\----------

It was December 18th, the day of the UA recommendation exams, and Izuku was incredibly nervous. What if he didn’t pass the exam? What would happen then? Would he be forced to give up his gear and retire from vigilantism? He took a deep breath and walked onto UA’s grounds, panicking about the future would do no good.

As he walked through the gates, he was quickly overwhelmed by the amount of people who had come to take one of the recommendation exams. There had to be hundreds of students here, and any of them could be a potential rival test-taker. He took another deep breath and began to look around to see if there were any Quirks he could analyze in an attempt to calm himself.

After making some quick mental notes on a few of the mutation Quirks he could see, Izuku walked inside of UA’s main building. He was greeted by a wall covered in a giant screen with the testing rooms on it. He looked over the screen frantically searching for his name. He found it at the bottom left corner of the screen, he was the only one in his room. He took a deep breath and set out to find the room.

It took him three minutes to find his testing room. When he found it, he walked into the room, and found that it was an empty interior room that only contained a desk and chair. He sat in the chair and waited. After about a minute of waiting, Aizawa walked into the room. “I’m going to be your proctor for the written exam. You have one hour to complete this test. I’ll take your test once you’re done.” 

Izuku began the test. It was clear that the test had been specifically tailored to what he had learned. In addition to questions on various core subjects, there were sections dedicated to various things he had been taught by Shade, as well as a couple of essays where he had to analyze several Quirks. He finished the test fifteen minutes before time ran out.

When he was done, he walked over to Aizawa and handed over his test. Aizawa nodded. “Follow me. We’re going to Nezu’s office for the interview section.”

Izuku followed Aizawa to what he assumed was the principal’s office. When they walked inside, they were greeted by Nezu. “It’s nice to see you again Mr. Midoriya. Feel free to sit down or stand, whatever you find more comfortable.”

Aizawa handed the test to Nezu. and walked out of the room. Once he had left, Izuku sat in a chair across from Nezu. “I’m assuming that you’re going to interview me?”

“I am, although it’s more of a formality than anything else. We’ve already met, so this won’t take very long. Now, I’m going to ask you a series of questions, I will save my thoughts until after all of the questions have been asked. Are you ready to begin?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. Why do you want to become a hero?”

“I want to become a hero to help and inspire people.”

“You can learn to be a hero in a lot of places, so why did you choose UA?”

“It’s the best hero school in the nation, maybe even the world. It’s also close to where I live.”

“Do you intend to continue your vigilante activities after the school year begins?”

“Probably, I’ve honestly kinda been enjoying flying around and helping people.”

“What do you believe makes someone a villain?”

“Their actions, someone who mugs one person one time out of sheer desperation is nowhere near deserving the designation of villain but a serial killer would be.”

Nezu made a facial expression that resembled a smile. “You pass this portion of the exam. I quite liked your answers.”

“That’s it?”

“Indeed it is. I already had an idea of who you are, so few questions were required. Shall I grade your test right now?”

“Will it slow down the other recommendations?”

“No, it won’t, they’re currently doing their practicals, they don't have the interview until later.”

“Wait, do I have to do a practical?”

“No, a couple of people have vouched for your skill and it was easy to find security footage of you. I have a good enough idea of your abilities. Besides, the analysis questions technically served as some sort of practical.”

“Ok. You can grade it.”

Nezu first flipped to the analysis portion of the test, after a moment he began to speak. “Very good, though your analysis on this liquefaction Quirk is a little off. Based on the scenario presented I think it is far more that it somehow forces a change in state instead of heating to the object’s melting point. If it had been simply heating there likely would have been a notable time difference between liquefaction.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t quite sure on that so I went with what I thought seemed more likely.”

Nezu flipped through the test for several more minutes. When he was done, he looked up. “ Congratulations on becoming a first year at UA, you passed the test with an 89%. Now, while you’re here, I have a favor to ask you, can you help plan an assignment for the hero course?”

“Why are you asking me? What is it?”

“I want you to work with Tsukauchi to create some sort of mystery for the first year students to solve as practice. Whatever it is cannot be related to your other identity and must be approved by me and the hero course teachers. Shade recommended you for it, he believes that it would help you to gain a basic understanding of how mysteries can be solved. So, will you do it?” 

“I guess so.”

\----------

Hisashi Midoriya was excited, two weeks ago, his son had made it into a top school on an academic recommendation. He luckily had plenty of vacation time saved up, so he could go home and celebrate with his family. 

He had recently arrived at the Musutafu airport, and, since it was a nice Tuesday night, he had decided to walk home. It was a relaxing walk. Since it was late at night, there was almost nobody around, the only other person he had seen was a catlike blonde schoolgirl who had looked at him, giggled, and skipped past him. He thought nothing of it.

He turned into an alley that he used as a shortcut, he was shocked to see that the schoolgirl he had seen earlier was standing in the middle of the alley, staring at him. She pulled something out of her sock, although Hisashi couldn't quite tell what it was, and skipped towards him. Concerned, he asked "Can I help you with something?" 

The girl smiled, it was a wide grin that displayed her fangs. "Can I give you a makeover? You look so plain, I can make you look really good."

"Sorry, I don’t think I have time for that. My wife and son are expecting me at home."

“It won’t take that long.”

He was starting to get a bad feeling about the girl. “I’m sorry, but really have to get going.”

“I’ll just do it really quick then.” All of a sudden, the girl rushed forward at an incredible speed and stabbed him in the chest. Hisashi realized that she had pulled a knife out of her sock. He tried to use his Quirk, but the girl pushed his chin up and bit into his neck.

"You look so much better with the blood on you, don't thank me, your family will absolutely adore it." The girl stabbed his thigh to cut open his pocket. She pulled the knife out and took the contents of his pocket. Flipping through the contents of his wallet, she pocketed all the money he had on him before discarding the rest of the wallet. "Bye bye Mr. Midoriya, I'll see you later."

As she skipped out of the alley, Hisashi shakily stood up and, using the wall for support, began to move back towards the street in an effort to find someone who could help him.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a man suddenly appear. Angered at his lack of action, he yelled. “Hey! You there! Call an ambulance, I’m seriously injured.”

The man floated into view, he was a pale man wearing a red bodysuit with a high collar and the letter D prominently displayed on it’s chest. He smiled a sad smile and quietly spoke. “It’s a little too late for that. You’ve already bled out.”

“What are you talking about, I’m fine, although I won’t be if you don’t call a damn ambulance.”

The man pointed to something, Hisashi’s eyes slowly followed his finger. When he saw what he was pointing to, a sense of dread settled in his gut. It was his body. “Is this some sort of joke? I’m here, that can’t be me down there, I’m here.”

“You’re a ghost now. Don’t worry, you get used to it. Name’s Brand, Boston Brand, I’m also known as Deadman. I’ve been at this for about two centuries now, and I’m here to teach you the ropes of being a ghost.”

“Bullshit. Ghosts aren’t real.” 

“Well then how do you explain this?”

“It’s some sort of hallucination because of that girl’s Quirk. It has to be.”

“It’s not. If you look down you’ll notice that all your wounds are gone.”

He did, they were. “Fine, I’ll play along. If I am a ghost, how did I become one?”

“Well it means that some god or goddess, goddess in this case, has taken notice of you and needs someone to fill a role. Her-”

Hisashi interrupted him. “Oh yeah? Who would that be? Amaterasu? Nice try, gods don’t exist.”

Boston clearly wasn’t bothered. “Nah, she isn’t Amaterasu, or Japanese, she’s Greek. Named Donna. She sent me to find you.”

“In high school I went through a phase where I learned as much as I could about ancient pantheons, I don’t know of a goddess named Donna. There isn’t one in any pantheon that I can think of. What is she the goddess of? Newspapers? Oh, and if there was, why choose me? ”

“You’re actually kinda close, she’s the messenger between the gods and the titans. She had a list of people that she was considering and you just happened to die first.”

“Alright, that’s enough. I’m just going to go home now.”

“Ok, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Hisashi stormed down the alley, unaware that he was floating a few inches off of the ground. As he approached the apartment, he became concerned when he saw a police car pull up in front of his building. He closely followed the officer that stepped out, although he failed to notice that the officer couldn’t tell he was there. When the officer walked up to his door and knocked he panicked, maybe Boston had been right maybe he was dead. He reached for the doorknob only for his hand to pass through it. He watched, helpless, as his family burst into tears when the officer told them he had died.

\----------

“It’s such an honor to finally be number one after years of trying. Me and the people on this stage have all been working incredibly hard, Yoroi Musha in particular. I would like to thank them for being exemplary examples of heroism. - (applause) - I would also like to thank my teachers and American friends for helping me get a start on my career and teaching me how to become a hero. - (applause) - Finally, I would like to thank my fans for supporting me, I won’t waste your support and will continue to give heroism my all.”  
\- All Might’s first #1 hero acceptance speech at the 2185 hero ranking event.


	4. Dim

\----------

Detective Tsukauchi was having an interesting morning. His drive to the station had been frustrating because of road closures and he had barely slept the night before. He had spent most of the night staring at his phone and waiting for Izuku to call him about his dad. As soon as he sat down at his desk, his phone began to rumble. He looked at the number, Izuku was calling him. He excused himself from the station and answered it. “Hello, you’ve reached detective Tsukauchi, how can I help you?”

”What do you know?”

He blinked. “About as much as you, I’m not on the case. I’ll try to find out more. I’ll call you later and tell you what I’ve found. Don’t do anything reckless before that.”

“Fine.” Izuku hung up.

Tsukauchi sighed, nothing good could come from this. 

\----------

By the time Saturday had come, Izuku was laser focused on catching whoever had killed his dad, he had been neglecting everything else. When he was about to leave to see what he could find, his phone buzzed. Seeing that it was Tsukauchi, he quickly answered. “What’ve you learned?”

“The lead detective asked for my help in an interview with one of the survivors of the primary suspect’s attacks. The detectives believe that the previous attacks of Himiko Toga, a C ranked serial killer. I can get you a summary of her file if you want.”

“That’d be nice. Can you please do that?”

“I feel like I shouldn’t but I will. You should probably be careful if you go after her, she's much more dangerous than the muggers you’ve been fighting. Call for help if you need it. Don’t strain yourself hunting for her, get some sleep.”

“I’ll be fine.” Izuku hung up and left through the window.

On the other end of the line, Naomasa quickly texted Shota and Toshinori to explain the situation. He could probably use their help to avoid another Naruhata. Two O’Clock had been a nightmare to restrain and Toga promised to be similar.

\----------

Weeks passed and neither Izuku or Tsukauchi had any further leads on Toga, although that didn’t stop Izuku’s attempts to find her. 

It had gotten to the point where he barely bothered sleeping during the night, instead focusing on hunting for Toga. He instead got what little sleep he could during his classes. His grades had fallen to the point where he was just barely passing. 

The only activity where he bothered to try was combat practice with Aizawa. But even there, his tiredness was affecting his work. On one Tuesday about three weeks after his dad was killed, Aizawa confronted him about it. “Midoriya, the past couple of weeks you’ve been unfocused and sloppy, is something wrong?”

Izuku snapped back. “No, nothing is wrong, I’m fine.”

“I’m here if you need help.”

Yui nodded. “Me too.”

“I’m fine. I don’t need help.”

It was clear that neither believed him. Aizawa decided to begin. “If you say so. Now get your gear on and finish your warm-ups. The two of you are sparring today.”

Both nodded and began their stretches. 

Once they were done, they put on their protective pads and moved to stand across from each other. Aizawa looked at both of them and, receiving a confirmation from both, began the match.

Izuku opened by rushing at Yui and throwing a jab at her head. She dodged it and responded with a quick jab of her own. 

Izuku launched a cross counter, avoiding her fist. He followed this by kneeing her stomach. She stumbled back.

Once she recovered, she moved in again, launching a quick kick at his torso. Izuku failed to block it. She pressed her advantage, throwing a quick elbow strike at his face. When he blocked it, she moved in.

She put him in a headlock and began to force him to the ground. 

He growled and flipped her onto the mats. As she fell he delivered a vicious punch to her face. Before she could hit the ground, Aizawa caught her. “Kodai, are you okay?”

Yui waved her hand a little and gestured to her now bloody nose. “Mm.”

“Midoriya, go home, I was willing to overlook this, but you clearly aren’t fine. This might sound a little hypocritical but you haven’t been sleeping and it shows. You’re unfocused, and that's made you sloppy. Go home and take a nap, when you wake up, don’t do anything for the rest of the day, you need to sleep.” 

“Fine.” Izuku stormed off. 

\---------- 

Izuku didn’t take Aizawa’s advice. As soon as he got home he immediately began to prepare to go out and hunt for Toga. He had a good feeling about tonight. When the sun finally set, he left through his window, not realizing that he had left his distress beacon on his desk.

After about three hours, he finally saw his target. Toga was skipping around in a back alley, presumably waiting for prey. Izuku flew into her and growled. “You mugged and killed someone close to me, I’m stopping you here, you won’t hurt anyone else.”

“First off, do you have any idea how little that narrows it down? Second, you should be thanking me, whatever I did gave you a whole lotta motivation. It’ll make you a better hero.” 

Izuku was flabbergasted. “You murdered him.”

She ran towards him and drew her knives. “So? A little light murder never hurt anybody. Now hold still a moment.”

Toga violently slashed at Izuku’s throat. He just barely dodged backwards. Flying away, he launched an energy blast at her. She casually leaned back, dodging the move.

She threw one of her knives at Izuku. “You seem pretty fun, I’ll be sure to make it slow.” 

He blocked it with a force field and, realizing he was probably in over his head, reached for his distress beacon. When he couldn’t find it, he began to frantically search through his other pockets. When he realized that he didn’t have it, he turned to run away.

“So you aren’t going to do anything? Might as well make this a little more interesting.” 

She rushed towards him and bounced off of the barrier. Izuku quickly capitalized and began to fly backwards, firing a couple of shots meant to keep her away. 

She gracefully weaved through them, throwing another knife at him. He dodged it. 

Suddenly, she pounced on him and cut through his jacket, exposing the armor underneath. “Oh pooh. It looks like I have to go for the face, a shame, the spurts from the heart are the best part.”

Izuku just managed to groan out a quiet “Go to hell.”

She smiled and grabbed the staff before slashing at his hand, forcing him to release the staff. She casually threw it over her shoulder. “I’m gonna try something, don’t get too mad at me.”

She pushed his head at an angle, exposing his neck. When she was apparently satisfied, she bit into it and began to drink. After a moment, she dragged her fangs towards the front of his neck, cutting into it more. After she was done, she let go and pushed him to the ground. 

She began to bubble and change. A couple of seconds later there was a near-perfect recreation of Izuku outside of uniform in front of him. “Ooh, you’re pretty cute. I can only imagine what you’d look like just a little bloodier. You’d be stunning.” 

She skipped away, whistling what Izuku barely registered as a cheery pop tune. After a few paces, she stopped and doubled over, chunks of Izuku falling off of her body. Izuku took the opportunity to mentally instruct the staff to fly into her, knocking her off of her feet. 

“Damn problem child, you’re lucky Tsukauchi warned me this might happen.” Aizawa jumped down from a nearby roof and immediately moved to restrain Toga. Toga had other plans, she wildly slashed at Aizawa, forcing him back. As she fled, she snarled. “Fuck you, you just ruined my night.”

Izuku was in pain, but that didn’t stop him from being mad at Aizawa. “Why were you following me?”

“I wasn’t. When we were first looking for you, Tsuakauchi used sightings to create a rough approximation of where you patrolled. I used that to determine a path for me to patrol. I was afraid you might do something stupid. I’ll bandage you and then we'll go to UA.”

“Why?”

Aizawa reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a bare-bones first aid kit. “I can get Recovery Girl to meet me there. Now hold still, this will sting.”

The walk was long and tiring. When they finally got to UA, they were greeted by an irate Recovery Girl. She hobbled over to him and began to unwrap and examine his wounds. “Aizawa. What did you do to the poor boy, he’s practically dead on his feet. I can’t heal him like this, it’ll kill him.”

“He did it to himself. I called you because you’re better at conventional medicine then I am, not for your Quirk. The villain bit him, her Quirk registration simply says blood based transformation, nothing else.”

“Well you did a good enough job with his wounds. They luckily aren’t too bad, but they’re probably bad enough that he needs a hospital in case there’s some sort of Quirk related effect. Go to my car and get my bandages out of my trunk.”

As Aizawa retrieved the bandages, Izuku managed to grumble out a question about his gear. Recovery girl promptly answered. “You can put it in my trunk for now dearie, I’ll find a way to get it back to you later.”

Aizawa helped Izuku put his staff, goggles, and jacket into the trunk. The two of them then got into the car. Once everyone was ready to go, Recovery Girl sped off to the hospital. Izuku fell asleep on the way.

\----------

Izuku finally stirred early the next morning. As he groggily sat up, he looked around the room. He was in a bed in what was presumably a hospital. His mom was sitting and reading a book on the other side of the room. He cleared his throat and called out to her. “Hi Mom, what time is it?”

His mom looked up, put down her book, and marched over to his bed. Pointing a finger at him, she angrily said. “Izuku Midoriya. I could only ignore it as long as you never got hurt, but here you are in the hospital. You have to stop going out as a vigilante.” 

“Mom, I’m not a vigilante. I snuck out and got mugged.” He couldn’t look her in the eyes, his feeble attempts at lying would fall apart incredibly quickly.

“I don’t believe that for one second. I’ve known you were going out since day one. When you leave, aren’t anywhere near as subtle as you think you are. It admittedly took me a while to figure out exactly what you were doing, but I did. I also know you weren’t spending time at “hero club” or whatever it was. Masaru saw you in a gym with two other people. You were chasing whoever killed Hisashi weren't you”

“I’m not a vigilante.”

“I’ve been washing your costume. Have you not noticed that?”

Aizawa walked into the room. “She knows problem child. You repeating that you aren’t isn’t going to change anything. She already lectured me on letting you go out and getting injured. They're pretty visible, so before anyone asks, you attempted to enact vigilante justice on your father’s killer.”

“How visible? And why would I tell the truth?” 

“Very. The doctors say that your cheek will likely scar. The neck ones are admittedly a little harder to see, but not much harder. You’ll tell the truth because it’s easier to remember. This is also officially the last time you’ll be active.”

Izuku felt his cheek, there was a bandage where he had been cut. “I think I need to update my costume. “

Inko, furious, turned to him. “You will do no such thing. You aren’t going out ever again.”

Aizawa let out a muffled laugh, Inko promptly turned to him. “You think this is funny? He’s in danger every time he goes out. I can’t let him do it.”

Izuku interjected. “I can do it Mom. I haven’t gotten hurt before.”

Inko frowned. “You’re in the hospital Izuku. You’ve been hurt.” She turned to Aizawa. “Did you even try to stop him?”

“Detective Tsukauchi, me and another hero tried to arrest him. We found out that your son is taking advantage of a legal loophole that allows him to legally be a vigilante, provided anyone who he fights attacks first. We unsuccessfully tried to talk him out of it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to my day job.” Aizawa turned and left the room.

Inko frowned. “I knew I should’ve stopped this when it first started. Izuku if I told you to stop, would you?”

Izuku looked his mom in the eyes. “No, I probably wouldn’t. Even if you took all my gear, I’d still probably try.”

She didn’t speak for a couple of seconds. She eventually sighed and nodded. “I don’t like it, but I know you’d go out even if it wasn’t as safe. I guess I’ll let you keep your gear. But you can’t go out before midterms or finals, you’re also taking a break the next couple of weeks.”

“Thanks mom.” Inko smiled. “If you need help, ask me.”

“Okay, when can I go home?”

Inko laughed. “A few more hours Izuku, the doctors want to make sure your bite is fine.”

\----------

While on break, Izuku’s day to day life was a little boring. He spent the first week at home. His dad’s funeral took place the first Saturday. As he had requested, it was a small and quiet affair attended only by him, his mom, and most of his dad’s friends and family. 

When he returned to school, he found that the student body had somehow learned of him and Toga. As soon as he stepped into his classroom, his classmates crowded around him and began asking for details. Overwhelmed, he managed to stutter out a few details. He was saved when Bakugo yelled at the other students. “Who the fuck cares what Deku did. His failure just proves that he’s worthless.”

The rest of the day was generally uninteresting. When Izuku got home, he finally called Shade to request a practical mask that he could use to cover his cheek. 

\----------

Right before the Monday he was to go back to patrolling, he finally received his new costume component from Shade. The box containing it had appeared on his bed after he had come back from cleaning Dagobah. When he opened it, he was shocked to see an incredibly old-fashioned, golden gas mask. 

As he examined the mask, he realized that there was a note in the box. He picked it up and began to read. “I have what you requested. This mask was a gift to you entrusted to me by Wesley Dodds. He left a note of his own within. I perhaps should have given you this earlier. Since you have a villain who knows you outside of the mask, I have left the gravity rod in your closet. I would advise you to carry it just in case something goes wrong. - Shade.”

Izuku lifted the mask out of the box, as he began to examine it, he saw the other note that Shade. It was sitting at the bottom of the box, encased in a vacuum sealed bag. He picked it up and began to read. “Mr. Midoriya, I hope this letter finds you in good health, if not, I wish you speedy recovery. But I doubt you care for the pleasantries. I was a superhero known as the Sandman back in my day. I suspect Shade has probably told you about me, so I won’t go more in depth than that.”

Izuku quickly pulled his notebook out and looked for the entry on Sandman, trying to figure out how he could have known who he was. Seeing that precognition was listed among his powers, he nodded and turned back to the note. “I can see the future in my dreams, and one day I saw you fighting some odd sword wielding villain. At the time I had been seeing things far further into the future than usual, but I digress. You were wearing a mask much like mine. So I took it upon myself to get you that mask. I commissioned it from Dr. Irons, who you might know as Steel. I also had it enchanted by Doctor Occult.”

Izuku flipped through his notebook again, reading his pages on Steel and, unable to find one on Doctor Occult, returned to the note. “The mask is much more durable than it looks. It should also repair itself. It's lenses are similarly hardy and are comparable to welding equipment. It also unsurprisingly functions as a gas mask, so you won’t be breathing in smoke or fumes. As a final bonus, it should automatically resize itself. I do hope you enjoy this gift, because you can’t return it. The gift receipt is long expired. - Wesley Dodds.”

Izuku immediately tried it on, it fit perfectly.

\---------

Izuku’s next patrol went well for about fifteen minutes. When he passed by the docks, someone landed on him. As the impact sent both of them towards the ground, whoever had attacked him was laughing hysterically. He recovered, flipped whoever it was over his shoulder, and pinned under his foot. Finding that it was Toga, he pointed the staff at her. “I’m taking you in.”

“No way. I’m having too much fun to go to jail.” She kneed his groin. It had no effect. “Oh pooh, you have armor there. Guess I’ll have to cut it off of you.”

She grabbed his leg and attempted to force him to the ground. Using his other leg, he launched himself away from her. She kept gripping onto his leg, so he shot an energy blast at her, knocking her off.

She hit the ground, growling she pulled out two knives and threw one at him. He dodged to the side only to run into another thrown knife that bounced off of his shoulder. He was suddenly knocked down as Toga rammed her shoulder into his stomach. He retaliated by blinding her with a burst of light. 

He yet again flew backwards and pointed the staff at her. “I’m going to beat you and take you to the police.”

She lazily waved her knife around. “Nah, I’ll kill-”

All of a sudden there was a roaring sound as a wall of fire erupted between the two of them. Izuku quickly began to look for it’s source. As he turned to the left, he saw that Endeavor and two of his sidekicks had arrived on the scene. “I’m taking the two of you in for unauthorized Quirk usage, come quietly or face the consequences.”

Izuku took off towards the rooftops. He had to escape immediately, he couldn’t possibly beat the number two hero in a fight, so his best bet was a possibly futile attempt to escape. Back on the ground, Endeavor gave orders to his two sidekicks. “Kido, Burnin’, chase the one escaping high. I’ll get the other one.”

As he dropped on top of an apartment building and sprinted across it, Izuku began to create a plan, he couldn’t just fly away, Kido’s Quirk could definitely stop that. Finally, he came up with a loose one. He would go to Dagobah and hide among the junk. In order to do that, he had to avoid being trapped by the two of them. When he reached the end of the roof, he heard a thud behind him. Burnin’ suddenly yelled. “Hey! Stop running, you’re only gonna make this worse for yourself.”

Izuku turned around and locked eyes with her, letting out a sigh of relief that it was the sidekicks and not Endeavor. When she saw his mask, her eyes widened and she tapped her earpiece. As she ran towards him she began to talk to her fellow sidekick. “Kido, I recognize our escapee. Might be a villain. Go for maneuver zeta.” She paused for a second and jumped across the gap in the rooftops. “The third building from the end should work.“ 

Izuku turned and flew to the building on the other side of the alley, behind him Burnin’ growled and leapt off of the roof before Kido boosted her.

As she landed on the roof, Izuku leapt down onto the street. Looking around, he realized that he was at the park near Dagobah, his plan could probably work. He quickly ran into the park. When he neared the far edge, out of the corner of his eye he saw Kido approaching him. He quickly turned and ran towards a nearby alleyway that would get him to Dagobah. As he ran, he could faintly hear the two sidekicks behind him cursing. 

He turned onto the beach and rocketed towards the remaining trash. Once he was hidden behind one of the piles, he manipulated it’s contents to create a pocket for him to hide inside of. 

He could hear them searching around for several minutes. Once they were done, he heard Burnin’s furious yell. “Fuck! The boss is gonna have our heads for this.”

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad Moe. If you want, we could look around one more time?”

“Nah. He's probably flown off by now. Let’s go.”

Izuku waited for what felt like an eternity before he disassembled his hideaway and cautiously looked around. He didn’t see either sidekick, so he carefully made his way home.

\----------

The door to the police station slammed shut. Tsukauchi turned to his partner. “So who do you think it is this time?”

Sansa snorted. “Same person it’s been the last few. It’s gotta be Endeavor. You go deal with him.”

“Why me?" "Tanuma retired so you’re the only one he’ll listen to. If I go, he’ll just ask for you, just go out there and get it over with.” 

“I know that, it was a rhetorical question.” Tsukauchi sighed and marched towards the front desk. When he got there, he was greeted by Endeavor staring down the receptionist, he wasn’t even going to bother asking why it happened.

As soon as he saw Tsukauchi, Endeavor immediately began addressing him. “I encountered two criminals tonight. Both escaped me. I want all you can tell me about both of them.”

“Who were they?”

“I chased after a blonde girl in a school uniform, she had several knives and escaped through the sewers, she used no visible Quirk but had fangs and catlike eyes. My sidekicks can tell you about the other one, they got a better look.” He turned to the door and yelled. “Burnin’, Kido, get in here!”

The two sidekicks trudged through the door. Kido, stepped forward. “We pursued someone with a flight Quirk. They were small. They wore a gas mask, jacket, cargo pants, and some weird hat. They carried a rod of some sort. Burnin’ swears she sort of recognized them.”

“I did, I swear I've seen both the mask and the staff thingy before, but I don’t know where. I think he’s a villain of some sort, but I’m not sure.”

“I think I know who you’re talking about, I’ll copy the files and bring them over to your office tomorrow morning. The blonde’s a serial killer, ranked C. The one in the mask is a vigilante. We’ve already met, I couldn’t arrest him due to a technicality. He only uses support gear.”

“Thank you.” Endeavor nodded and left the station, his sidekicks following close behind.

Tsukauchi sighed and went to gather the files, of course Midoriya attracted the attention of Endeavor. He could already tell that this would probably end poorly.

\----------

The very next day, Izuku received a call from Tsukauchi. He answered it after the first ring and continued his walk to the train station.. “Hello, Izuku Midoriya here.”

“Don’t react to this. Endeavor’s taken a special interest in your case. After you ran from his sidekicks yesterday, he asked for the files on you and Toga. He called the station earlier and asked for any new information on either of you to be sent to him. I probably don’t have to tell you this, but be careful.” 

“Thanks, that’s good to know, I’ll be careful. Talk to you later?”

“Sure thing.” Tsukauchi hung up.

Izuku sighed and stepped onto his train. Yui had the entrance exam later in the week and he felt like he should be there to help her prepare. Although they had texted somewhat frequently, they hadn’t seen each other since he had been in the hospital. 

When he walked into the gym, she immediately walked up to him. Their eyes met. They stared at each other. Then Yui punched his shoulder. “Ow, what was that for?”

“Mm.” She frowned and crossed her arms. Izuku blushed. “Okay, yeah I probably deserved that. Were the texts not enough?”

She nodded. “Yes. Go change, I want to get started.” 

Practice ended three hours later when Aizawa pulled Izuku aside. “We need to talk. Kodai, go home and get some rest. We won’t meet on Thursday. You should spend that time studying for the written portion. We’ll continue this after the next school year starts.”

She nodded and went into the locker rooms to change.

Izuku turned to Aizawa. “What are we talking about?”

“About you looking for Toga. Were you looking for revenge?”

Izuku shrugged and quietly spoke. “I mean, I guess I was. But I also didn’t really want anyone to have the same thing happen to them.”

Aizawa sighed. “When I was in my second year at UA my friend Shirakumo was killed in a villain attack. I took down the villain that did it. Afterwards, I was incredibly upset. I felt that I could have done something and saved him. I threw myself into any training that I felt could have helped me while ignoring anything else. A couple of years ago, a few people helped me realize that I was being illogical. Dwelling on the past and using it to prepare for the future isn’t a good thing when you ignore the present. What I’m saying is don’t do what I did. Talk to people, have fun. It’ll help you more than another hour of practice.” 

Izuku took a deep breath. “I might have to slow down, Endeavor’s looking for me.”

“Yeah as terrible as this’ll sound, that’s probably a good thing. Might wanna mix up your patrol times and patterns too. Now go home, eat dinner, and get some sleep.”

Izuku did.

\----------

Izuku had immediately taken Aizawa’s advice. He had made a method of randomizing when and where he patrolled. He had a few close calls with Endeavor’s sidekicks, but none with the man himself. He assumed that was purely because of luck.

But none of that was currently on his mind, it was finally his first day at UA, he had been looking forward to it since the Toga fiasco had ended. He woke up early, he had a train to catch.

He took the train until the stop where he would get off for the gym. He stepped onto the platform and waited for Yui to arrive. They had planned to walk to UA together. When she arrived she nodded to him and they began their walk. It was comfortably quiet.

When they walked through the entryway, they were greeted by a sign that showed where each department was located. Gen ed and heroics were on opposite sides of the building. They said their goodbyes and headed to their respective classes.

He turned the corner to find that his class, 1-C, was right there. As he walked in, he was greeted by an excitable duo. One was a lanky, tall, boy with a visor and the other was a shorter, stockier, boy with very large mutton chops. The tall boy waved at him. “I’m Ichimoku Samazu, it’s nice to meet you.” 

The other boy scoffed. “I’m Jube Namimaru, don’t you forget it.” 

“It’s nice to meet both of you.” Izuku smiled and went to find his seat. 

When he did, he sat down. Next to him was a sleepy looking purple-haired boy. He decided to follow the example of the two at the door and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Izuku Midoriya, it's nice to meet you.”

The boy glared at him. “I don’t care who you are. I’m not here to make friends.” 

“Well then what are you here for? Do you want to transfer into the hero course?”

“Yes, now stop talking to me.”

A couple of minutes later, Present Mic walked into the room and shot finger guns at the students, a massive grin on his face. “Hey! I’m your new homeroom teacher, it’s nice to meet you all. We’ve got an assembly in a few minutes. But before we go to that, let’s go around the room and do a brief introduction of ourselves, you only have to share your name, just go whenever, there’s no set order, but you have to go. I’ll go first, I’m Present Mic, but you can call me Yamada. I’m from Tokyo, but I occasionally room with a couple of my friends during the school year.”

They spent a few minutes introducing themselves, only a few people stood out to Izuku. Jube and Ichimoku, who had, in unison, declared that they were from Naruhata. A boy named Agoyamato, who had a very large chin, went on and on about his many accomplishments. A girl named Togeike, who mentioned something about wanting to be a reporter like her aunt. And finally, there was the boy he had been talking to earlier, he introduced himself as Shinso and sat back down. 

Izuku was the last person to introduce himself. “H-hi it’s nice to meet you all, my name is Izuku Midoriya. I want to become a Quirk analyst, so if anyone wants a little free help I’m willing to give you some.” 

As soons as Izuku was done, Present Mic stood back up. “It’s just about time to head to the opening assembly and orientation, so follow me and let’s get there a little early.”

When they arrived, they were escorted to they’re class’ seats. Izuku ended up sitting in between Jube and the aisle. After a couple of seconds, Principal Nezu walked up to the podium. “Hello first year students, it’s very nice to meet you all. First, we have to go over a few rules. After that, we’ll go over some of the things you’ll be doing this semester. Finally, we have a couple of staff to introduce you too.”

Izuku tuned Nezu out when he started to talk about the sports festival. He began to look around the room. There were two sections marked 1-A and 1-B directly across the aisle from him. The 1-B section was full, he could see Yui sitting between two blondes, one of whom had horns. There was nobody in the 1-A section, he assumed that Aizawa thought that this assembly was somehow a waste. So far, he didn’t really disagree, everything they had talked about was in the student handbook. 

Applause filled the room, so he looked back at the podium, Nezu had brought Hound Dog, Recovery Girl and Shade onstage. As he stepped up to the podium, Shade said something to Nezu, who nodded in response. Shade leaned up to the mic. “A moment please, I have some people to gather.” 

He stepped back and vanished. After a few seconds, the seats for 1-A were filled with nineteen students and a very grumpy looking Aizawa. Shade stepped forward and took the podium again. “Now that everyone is here, I would like to explain what I’m here to do. I am here to help with the development of your Quirks. I am also willing to help with other Quirk related matters, such as analysis or theory. This can either be by appointment or during a specialized class. While I will mostly be focused on the heroics course, you do not have to be in the heroics department to make an appointment with me. I will have a signup sheet for appointments outside my office tomorrow.”

As Hound Dog began to explain who he was, Izuku began to feel like he was being watched. He began to look around in an attempt to figure out why. He quickly found that a blonde boy in the 1-A section was staring at him, a large sparkling grin on his face. When their eyes met, the boy, who looked somewhat familiar, winked at him before turning back to the front. As Recovery Girl took the stage, he realized where he remembered the boy from. He had been the waiter at the cafe he and Shade had gone to. This could potentially be pretty bad. What had he overheard?

He quickly refocused on the stage, Recovery Girl had just finished a very quick explanation of who she was. Nezu took the stage. “Next, go back to your classrooms and meet your homeroom teacher there. Your teachers should show you around the campus. But before you leave, I would like to welcome an alumni to the stage to close the show. You know him well, please give a warm welcome to-.”

The doors burst open. “I am here to finish the assembly!” The entire auditorium turned to see a sheepish All Might. “Apologies for missing my cue Principal Nezu. I’m here because I’m gonna be teaching first year heroics this year. Now repeat after me. Plus Ultra!” 

The response was deafening. 

Once everyone had calmed down, the students shuffled out of the auditorium and back to their classrooms.

\----------

Once the tour was done, class 1-C was dismissed. As Izuku began to walk the train station, he reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. To his surprise, there was also a note in his pocket. He pulled it out and read it. “Meet me at the cafe where we first met, I’ll be waiting for you. I trust you will do the same. - ton ami Y. A.” 

He quickly called the first number he could think of. When Aizawa picked up the phone, Izuku instantly blurted out. “One of your students knows about me and Shade. He gave me a note and wants to meet me at a cafe. He saw me and Shade having a meeting there. Before you ask, I don’t think he’s Toga in disguise. Toga wouldn’t know about this.”

Aizawa groaned. “It’s the first day, how did this already happen? Who is it? What exactly do they know?”

“I’m not sure what his name is but he has blonde hair and the initials Y. A. He knows that me and Shade have met. I’m not sure if he knows anything else.”

“Alright, his name is Yuga Aoyama, his Quirk lets him fire lasers from his navel. I’ll go get Shade. You are going to go meet him and see what you can learn from him. We’ll be hiding and monitoring the situation. If things go south, we’ll step in. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now go meet him. We’ll be along shortly.”

Izuku quickly texted his mom that something had come up and boarded his train.

When he arrived at the cafe, the woman at the counter greeted him. “You must be Yuga’s friend. He’s waiting for you back there.” The woman gestured towards a corner of the restaurant. “He also told me to mention how secluded it is. I think he’s trying to make you unsettled by being mysterious.”

He walked over to the corner. As soon as he sat down, he locked eyes with Yuga and began to speak.. “Let’s get straight to the point. Why am I here?”

“No need to be so confrontational mon ami. I am simply curious about how you met Monsieur Shade.”

“We met and he saw one of my analysis notebooks. He was interested and wanted to discuss my notes. He said to meet him at the park and then we came here. He ended up recommending me to UA in the general education course. I didn’t know he would be part of the staff until later.”

“Why gen ed instead of support?”

“Because support is more about heroics. I want to be an analyst that helps people having problems with their Quirks.”

“Would you help anyone who needed help with their Quirk?”

“Of course”

“I see. In that case, could you please help me with my Quirk? It doesn’t exactly agree with me.”

“Uhh, sure? What times would work for you?”

Yuga let out a blindingly bright smile. “Pretty much any day at any time would work.”

“That really doesn’t help. How about Mondays and Wednesdays after school? I need to know what I’m dealing with, could you send me some details about it? I can give you my number.”

Yuga extended his hand across the table. “I believe we have a deal.”

“I guess we do.”

\----------

It worked. Psycho’s insane plan worked. None of the heroes should remember anything, only the villains. It should be significantly easier to gather who we need now. The only resistance left is the other Luthor’s group. Although Black Adam may become a problem when he learns of this, fortunately, he is a potential candidate for the machine and can be easily taken care of. Soon, things will be back to the way they should be. - Alexander Luthor’s journal 10/13/2005

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you didn't know, Jube and Ichimoku are characters from Vigilantes. In canon, they are likely at least a year older then Izuku, but I didn't really want to create classmates for him so I stuck them in there. They won't really be that important. Also about Vigilantes, since I planned this before the current arc began, it likely didn't go as it did in canon. It changes when Koichi starts training with Soga.


	5. Times Past

\-----------

Shade had very quickly decided that he wasn’t terribly fond of Tibet. It was cold and it’s general colour reminded him of his time in Hell. He was only here at Mt. Kailash because of a letter that he had gotten. Wesley Dodds had personally requested his presence. 

As he approached where he was supposed to be, he saw some footsteps headed towards the nearby peak. He followed them.

They ended at the very top of the mountain, where Wesley stood. Shade called out to him. “Wesley, I trust you are in good health?”

“I suppose so. Although that won’t be an issue for very long.” 

“Why? Did you see something?”

“Recently I’ve been having some dreams that go far into the future, much farther than they have before. Because of them, I know that this is my last night on Earth. But before I go, I need to tell you something. I want you to go to the museum in my brownstone and find my costume from when I started working with Sandy. There will be a box directly in front of the case. The box contains a gift for someone who you’ll meet later. Give it to him when he requests a mask, no sooner. On top of the box will be a letter. Inside the letter, there will be a series of three locations and dates. You need to be there for all of them.”

Shade nodded. “Do you mind if I ask a few more questions?”

Wesley looked at his watch. “You have a few minutes, so ask away.”

“I’m assuming you saw me there?”

“I did.”

“Am I the only person you’re leaving instructions to?”

“No, I also left some for Alan, Wally, and Oliver. I’m also leaving a couple of time capsules containing similar letters for several other people to find.” 

“When you say Oliver, do you mean Oliver Queen? If so, I’m afraid he’s dead.”

“Not for very long.”

“Fair enough. What about the time capsules? Do I have to do anything with those?”

“No. There are only three that you’re likely to run across. One in Keystone, one on a doomed island in the pacific, and one buried in the Japanese mountains. All of which are set for around the time of the third date.”

As he finished talking, there were several faint yells from further down the mountain. Wesley chuckled. “I suppose you should be on your way, it seems my fellow climbers have discovered that I’m missing. Do you remember where to look?”

“In front of your old costume, the one without the mask.”

“Very good. You’d better get going now. You don’t want to be around here for much longer, the company I’m expecting is quite unpleasant. Goodbye Richard, it’s been a pleasure.”

“It has indeed. Goodbye Wesley.”

\----------

October 17th 2005, Dr. Erdel’s lab, Tricorner Yards, Gotham City

When the day came, Shade warped to the facility’s door and knocked. After a couple of seconds, the door slowly opened and a balding man with a grey mustache stuck his head out. The man looked him in the eyes and frowned. “Why did you come here?”

“A friend told me about this place a few years ago, he told me to come here on this day. I don’t know why, but I trust him on this.”

The man turned his head to look at something. After a couple of seconds, he turned back to Shade. “Come inside, the people that hang out around here won’t hesitate to rob you.”

Shade walked into the warehouse. In the center of the building there was a giant ruined machine. It sort of looked like the blueprints of prototype Zeta teleporters that Adam Strange had once shown him. The man closed the door behind him, locking it with a makeshift mechanism. “I’m Dr. Saul Erdel. This friend, was he perhaps a superhero?”

Shade was taken aback by this, someone had remembered the superheroes? What were the odds? “Yes actually, he was the first Sandman. Do you remember them as well?

Erdel walked up to the machine and began to fiddle with it. “How did you know him?” 

“We fought a few times, but eventually I retired from villainy and became friends with a couple of members of the JSA.”

Dr. Erdel nodded and looked at the corner behind the machine. “He’s telling the truth.”

Another Dr. Erdel walked out of the shadows. “In that case, let’s introduce ourselves. I’m Dr. Erdel, this is M’gann.”

Shade looked back at the first Dr. Erdel only to find a young green woman. He raised an eyebrow. “Martian?” 

She nodded. “Yep. He didn’t remember what he was building, it was a replica of his original teleporter. When the wipe happened, he couldn’t remember what it did. All he could remember were some things related to Mars. He accidentally activated it and it brought me here. I accidentally restored his memories. We would have gone after others, but neither of us knew where to find any of them.”

Shade couldn’t help it. He chuckled. “Well I know quite a few, how soon can we get started? This seems like an action by an ambitious supervillain, and experience tells me that’s a bad thing. I recommend we nip this in the bud.”

The girl beamed. “Right now. Where do we start?”

Shade opened a portal. “Keystone, we start in Keystone.”

\----------

January 1st 2100, Cadmus Laboratory, Jaku City, Japan.

As the day began, he teleported himself onto the road just outside of the facility’s gates. All of his research led him to believe it was a heavily guarded facility, so there were likely measures in place to counter teleportation. 

As a result, he was shocked when he realized that there were no guards. In fact, the building appeared to have been sealed with solid metal barriers. He tore one off of the wall, broke the window behind it, and walked inside. Empty filing cabinets and trash littered the floor, it looked like the area had been hastily abandoned. He created a way out of the building and looked at the gates, it appeared that they had been welded shut and reinforced. 

He turned and walked down the road, eventually, he found himself in a plaza surrounded by the ruins of three buildings. Deciding to go through them clockwise, he walked over to the leftmost one and moved the rubble aside, he quickly found that it had been a parking structure. 

He moved on to the second one. His search revealed that it had likely been the headquarters of the guards.

Finally, he walked over to the third building. As he moved the rubble, he discovered an elevator shaft. He signed and lowered himself down into it. At the bottom, there were a pair of sealed blast doors. He tore them open and continued onward.

It revealed a long hallway full of broken glass tubes. He leaned down to look at the floor. It was covered by smashed glass, twisted metal, and ashes. He stood up and walked over to one of the tubes. In the bottom of it, there was a thick pale liquid. He created a vial and took some. He could get it tested later.

He finished his examination and began to walk back towards the door. As he reached it, he felt cold metal press into the back of his neck. A squeaky voice came from above him. “Why are you here?”

Shade calmly responded. “I came to investigate this facility. A friend with a future sight Quirk told me to be here today.”

“I don’t believe that. You aren’t here to investigate. You’re just going to experiment on me once I drop my guard.”

“I won’t. I’m not terribly interested in the sciences. If I wanted to harm you, I would have already done that. Please drop your weapon and let me leave.”

“No. You’ll probably just tell people about this lab. Then the guys they ran from will come here and they’ll experiment on me.”

“I have no reason to do that. In fact, I can protect you if Cadmus attempts to recapture you.”

“How?”

“I can get you a better place to stay and help you start a new life.”

“That sounds like a trap, why would I do that?”

“Frankly, I don’t particularly care what you do. You can come with me if you want, but I’m not going to force you if you don’t want to. But I do believe it is not in your interest to stay here. You implied that the staff here were running from someone. I found this place after a few hours of searching. What’s to say they wouldn’t do the same? Never mind what Cadmus might do when they realize that you’re missing. I broke in here. Both parties would have easier access because of that.”

There were a couple of seconds of silence before the pressure was removed from his neck. He turned around to face whoever had been threatening him. He found that a large white rodent in an improvised loincloth was hanging from the ceiling, using its paw to hold a scalpel. The rodent squeaked. ‘I’m Nezu. I’ve got a Quirk that greatly boosts my intelligence. You made some good points, I guess I’ll go with you.”

“Very well. I do have one more question. Do you know anything about the people they fled from?” 

“Not much. Some guys have been stealing stuff from laboratories, they apparently work for some big crime boss. The doctors were terrified that they’d be next so they packed up and locked this place up. I managed to escape in the confusion.”

Shade nodded. “I think I might know who they were talking about. I’m confident there isn’t much here that he could use. Shall we get going?” He held his hand out to Nezu.

Nezu put his paw on it and they left.

\----------

April 16th 2206, 15:05, Aldera Junior High School, Musutafu Japan

Shade was using several portals to view the grounds of the school. Aside from students leaving the school, nothing particularly interesting had happened. He wasn’t quite sure why he was there. At the very least, he could visit Nezu after this was done.

Right as he was about to leave, a charred notebook flew out of a second story window. He reached out and caught it. It appeared to be one Izuku Midoriya’s hero analysis.

He opened it to a page that had a drawing of a heroine named Mt. Lady, a series of notes beside it. They were quite good for someone in middle school. He turned the page. His blood ran cold, there was a drawing of the cosmic staff. 

This must be why he was here. He had to do something related to whoever wrote this book. He heard footsteps from around the corner. Assuming that this was likely the author of the notebook, he warped to the fountain, ready to confront them. When they rounded the corner, he looked up at them. “Based on the name on the notebook, I assume you are Izuku Midoriya. Is this assumption correct?” 

\----------


	6. The Calm

\----------

By lunch on the second day, the magic of being at UA had already worn off. Izuku, while still excited, had come to accept that it was just a normal high school that happened to have classes taught by pro heroes.

At the start of lunch, he had quickly gotten Lunch Rush’s autograph and, with his meal in hand, found an empty table near the entrance. As he sat down, he saw Yui looking around the room. He waved his arms to get her attention. She nodded and walked over. As she sat down, he began to eat.

After a couple of seconds, someone knocked on the table. He looked up to see Aoyama standing on the other side of the table, a sheepish smile on his face. “Can I sit here?”

Izuku looked at Yui. She nodded and moved slightly closer to him. He turned back to Yuga. “Sure.”

Aoyama set his tray down and puffed his chest out. He extended a hand to Yui. “I am the stunning Yuga Aoyama from class 1-A, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

Yui turned back to her food and mumbled back a quiet response. “Yui Kodai. 1-B.”

Yuga withdrew his hand and raised an eyebrow. Izuku laughed and returned to his meal. “It's not you, she’s just not that talkative.”

Yui nodded. 

After a couple minutes, someone began speaking from behind Izuku. “Kodai, I expected better from you.” When he turned around to look at them, he saw a boy with short blonde hair and an insane look in his eye. The boy continued. “Sitting with some 1-A trash on the first day of school. They don’t even have a full class, that proves they’re inferior. How-” 

He suddenly fell forwards, a red-haired girl had walked behind him, knocked him out, and caught the back of his shirt. She immediately began apologizing. “Sorry about that. I’ve known him for a day and this is the third time I’ve had to do this, I promise we aren’t all like this. If you don’t mind me asking, are any of you actually in 1-A?”

Yuga raised his hand. Kendo turned to him.” Again, I’m so sorry. I swear he has some sort of 1-A sense, he hasn’t been wrong yet. I don’t know how he already knows who’s in which class. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go get him somewhere that he’s less likely to harass people.” 

Izuku stood up. “Do you need help with the rest of your stuff?”

She put her lunch tray down and lifted Monoma into a bridal carry. “Yeah, could you please get that?” 

Izuku nodded, picked up her tray, and followed her to a table where a blonde girl with horns sat. Itsuka addressed her. “Tsunotori, is it alright if me and Monoma sit here?”

After a couple of seconds the girl tentatively nodded. “Is fine. Him too?”

Izuku shook his head, put the tray down, and pulled out a chair so Itsuka could sit the boy in it “Sorry, but I’m already sitting with some friends.”

She smiled at him. “Ok. Have fun with them.”

He turned and began to walk towards his table. As he pulled his chair out, someone grabbed his shoulder and aggressively spun him around. It was Bakugo, and he was very clearly furious. He grinned and began to loudly talk. “Hey Deku, I decided to do you a favor. I bet these extras don’t know about you. So I’m gonna tell ‘em that you’re a worthless, Quirkless, piece of shit.”

He turned on his heel and marched away. Unbothered by the glares he was receiving.

Yui frowned and turned to Izuku. “I don’t like him.”

He sighed and sat down. “Yeah, I understand why you wouldn’t.

Across the table, Yuga cleared his throat. “I apologize for disturbing you, but Monsieur Midoriya requested some details about my Quirk.” He slid a folded piece of paper to Izuku. “Since lunch is almost done, I figured I might as well give it to you now.”

Izuku put the paper in his pocket and began to wolf down his remaining lunch. 

Once he was done, he turned to Yui. “Any interesting people in your class?”

She shook her head. He nodded. “What about you Aoyama?”

Yuga smirked. “There are a few, but none are as interesting as moi.”

“Who?”

“Three immediately come to mind, Endeavor’s son, that boy from earlier, and this one girl who can create things.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the bell going off. The three of them said their goodbyes and went back to their classrooms.

As Izuku sat in his seat, Togeike walked up to him. “I heard that guy at lunch. I have to know, why would they possibly let someone as worthless as you get in here?”

Confused, Izuku quickly replied. “I passed the entrance exam.”

Togeike was clearly taken aback. “But why were you allowed to take it?” 

Izuku sighed. “I was recommended for it. One of the teachers saw my notes on Quirks and thought I would be a good fit for the school.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you. Why would they choose someone like you over someone who actually deserves it?”

Before Izuku could respond, Present Mic walked into the room. “Alright! That’s enough of that, it’s time for English class. Tokeige, I heard enough of your conversation. You have detention after school on Saturday.”

She groaned but relented as he started the lesson.

\----------

The next morning Izuku and Yui were met with chaos at the school’s gates, a crowd of reporters had crowded around the main entrance to UA. Izuku turned to Yui. “Do you remember where the other entrance is?” 

She nodded.

“Should we go there?”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. “Don’t have much time, it’s pretty far. We’d be late.”

Izuku took a deep breath and focused, this would likely be unpleasant. “Alright, I guess we’re going through.” 

They walked into the crowd of reporters. Almost immediately, they were pulled aside by a couple of reporters. “So All Might’s a teacher here. How is he?”

Yui shrank back, clearly uncomfortable. “Haven’t had him.”

The reporter sighed and turned to Izuku. “What about you?”

“He teaches heroics. I’m in gen ed.”

The reporter groaned and let them pass. They managed to move a few meters before they were stopped by yet another reporter. Before they could talk, Izuku gave them a brief answer. “Neither of us have seen him since the orientation ceremony, we don’t know anything. Please let us through, we need to get inside.”

The reporter nodded and left them alone. They repeated this process three more times.

Eventually, they reached the gates to find Aizawa standing there. He nodded to them and turned to the reporters. “Let the students come into the school. He’s not here right now.”

As they reached the doors, the school's protective barrier slammed shut behind them. Both of them jumped at the sudden noise. Once they realized it was nothing, Yui turned to Izuku. “Thank you. See you at lunch?”

He nodded. “Absolutely.”

With that, they set off to their classes.

\----------

After he finished his thoroughly uninteresting slate of morning classes, Izuku rushed to the lunchroom, quickly got his food, and sat at the same table as the day before. After a couple of minutes, Yui sat next to him. A few seconds after that, Yuga joined them, a massive smile on his face. He set his tray down and turned to Yui. “Have you had heroics yet?” 

She shook her head.

He smiled. “It’s an indoor combat training exercise. Me and my teammate Yaoyorozu beat the team of Iida and Sero in spectacular fashion.”

Yui nodded. “Interesting. How’s All Might’s teaching?”

“He’s a-” Yuga was interrupted by the school’s suddenly blaring alarm. An announcement followed, declaring a level 3 security breach. The three tablemates looked at each other, and stood up. As they walked into the hallway, chaos ensued, the students behind them had gotten worked into a frenzy and were stampeding towards the doors. They had to begin running to avoid getting trampled.

As they ran, they were overtaken by faster upperclassmen who aggressively pushed their way to the front. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed one of them knock Tokeige off balance. He reached out and pulled her up. She gave him a dirty look and pushed him away from her.

He was briefly swept along by the crowd before falling to the ground by the wall. Somebody stepped on his ankle, it made a cracking noise. Luckily, he managed to grab onto a nearby railing and pull himself behind it. Once he was out of the way, he looked down at his ankle. It was red, swollen, and very obviously broken. 

He grimaced and looked out of the window he was sitting next to. From his position, he could see the reporters from earlier being escorted off of the grounds by Aizawa and Ectoplasm. Futilely, he yelled out an explanation. “It’s just the media, calm down.” 

It was drowned out by the noise in the hall. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar looking girl standing on the shoulders of another girl. She stabbed some sort of cable into the intercom and raised her phone to her mouth. There was another cable in what appeared to be it’s headphone port. She began to speak into her phone. Her voice echoed from the intercoms. “If you had bothered to look out the window, you would know that there isn’t a villain on the grounds. It’s just the press. Calm down. You’re students of UA. You should be behaving better than this.”

The girl’s words were successful in calming the crowd. Before Izuku could get someone’s attention, Shinso walked up to him. “Hey, do you need help?”

Izuku nodded, slid under the railing, and lifted his arm. “Yeah, something happened to my ankle and I don’t think I can walk. Can you help me get to the auditorium?”

“Sure.” Shinso ducked under his arm, slung his own arm over Izuku’s shoulder, and lifted him up. “Is this good?”

Izuku nodded. “It should work, let’s go.”

They arrived at the auditorium fairly quickly. Once inside, Shinso used his free hand to pull a chair over. He then eased Izuku down into it. He then began to stretch his arm. “You’re heavier than you look. You sure you don’t have some sort of density Quirk?”

Izuku blushed. “I just work out a lot.”

Shinso nodded. “Can I have some advice? I want to get started. But we can talk about it later, I should probably go and find Recovery girl. Sorry about not sticking up for you yesterday.”

Izuku must have looked confused, because Shinso immediately clarified. “My Quirk also meant I got bullied, I should have done something.”

Izuku pulled out his phone, he could transfer his notes later. “What’s your Quirk?”

Shinso sighed and looked down. “I can brainwash people who talk to me. I’m gonna go find Recovery Girl now.” He turned and quickly walked away.

Izuku didn’t really notice, he was busy taking notes. After a couple of minutes Shinso came back with Recovery Girl. As she tended to Izuku’s leg, He asked Shinso a question. “ Do you know if your Quirk works through electronics?”

Shinso blinked. “I’m not sure, there’s never been anybody willing to test it with me.”

“I’m willing, is there a time that works for you?”

“I don’t do very much. What time works for you?”

“I’m already helping someone with their Quirk on Mondays and Wednesdays. I can see if he’s willing to work with you as well. If that doesn’t work out, Fridays and Saturdays also work.”

“I’m fine with working with the other guy.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you his response tomorrow.”

\----------

Yuga was excited, rescue training held great promise. Unfortunately, his seat on the bus was next to the decidedly inelegant Mineta. So far, his seatmate had done nothing but ogle at Yaoyorozu. It made him quite uncomfortable, so he had decided to do his best to ignore it by focusing on the ongoing conversation about heroic Quirks. Seeing an opportunity, he jumped into the conversation. “A Quirk like mine would be well suited, no?”

Almost immediately, Ashido turned to him and responded. “Yeah, but you get a stomach ache whenever you use it.”

He sat back down and groaned. He already knew that. It certainly didn't help to have his classmates pointing it out. His Quirk was one of the weakest in the class, he wasn’t the strongest, and he struggled to pass his classes. Soon they would be questioning why he was still here. He was outclassed and he knew it. 

He was brought out of his thoughts when Mineta tapped his shoulder. “Hey, you alright dude?”

He turned and shot him his best smile. “Of course I am, I’m simply dazzling.” 

Mineta just shrugged and turned back to Yaoyorozu. Yuga went back to sulking.

Eventually, they reached their destination. They got out of the bus and walked into the large domed building. Thirteen walked out and pulled Aizawa aside. Confused, Kaminari asked who they were, prompting an explanation by a very excited Uraraka. There was no sign of the third teacher. 

Yuga watched as Thirteen held up three fingers. In response, Aizawa put his head in his hands.

Thirteen stepped forwards. “Hello class 1-A and welcome to the USJ. It’s short for unforeseen simulation joint. I should know, I built it myself. It’s designed to teach you how to use your Quirks in rescue situations. Before I get this question, it doesn’t matter what your Quirk is, there is a way to make it work in a rescue situation, it just isn’t always obvious. For example, my Quirk is incredibly destructive. It allows me to tear matter apart. It can very easily kill people. However, it is also incredibly useful for removing debris in disaster areas. It’s nature means that if I’m not in control, people will die. I am also here to teach you that level of control.”

As they were talking, a small black cloud appeared in the center of the building. It quickly grew and people began walking out of it. Kirishima raised his hand and pointed at them. “Excuse me, are they part of the exercise?”

Aizawa briefly glanced at them before quickly putting his goggles on. “They’re villains. The sensors must not be working. Kaminari, try to contact the school. Thirteen-”

Kaminari interjected. “Something’s blocking me.”

AIzawa continued. “Great. Thirteen, get the kids out. Kaminari, try again once you’re clear. I’ll stay here and hold them off. Thirteen, once they’re out, get as much of the staff as possible and bring them back. Don’t come back without backup.”

As Aizawa ran into the central plaza, Thirteen began to usher the students to the entrance. As the group approached the door, the black mist appeared in front of them. A deep voice spoke from inside the cloud. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”

As the mist took on a humanoid shape, the voice spoke again. “It was a good plan. As expected of a teacher at the top school in the nation. Unfortunately, it didn’t account for me. We’re on a strict schedule, so tell me, where is All Might?” 

All of a sudden, Bakugo and Kirishima leapt forwards and attacked the mist. In response, the mist scattered before reforming on the stairs behind the students. “That was close. We clearly underestimated you students. I guess we have to deal with you as well, but I suppose that’s to our advantage. All Might could never resist saving people.”

The mist swirled out, surrounding the class. Thirteen yelled something about getting away from the mist. In response, the mist began to close in. It surrounded Yuga, it was cold and suffocating. 

All of a sudden, the ground below him disappeared and he was dropped on top of the roof of one of the ruin zone’s collapsed skyscrapers.

His landing was not graceful. Behind him, something thudded onto the roof. He whirled around ready to blast whatever it was. He relaxed when he realized that it was only Jiro. 

She nodded towards him, walked over to the ruin’s edge and looked down. She quickly turned back. “I saw some people on the street below, I’m willing to bet they’re villains. I think they saw the cloud. They’re all headed towards us. We’re about to be surrounded.”

Yuga gulped. “Do you think there’s a way out of here?”

She frowned. “Maybe, but we’ll probably have to fight.”

\---------

Modern Literature wasn’t a class Izuku found particularly interesting. So when a loud beep filled the room, it drew his attention. He watched as Cementoss pulled a silver disk from out of his pocket. He looked at it for a couple of seconds before turning back to the class. “Stay here. The teachers have to go deal with an emergency. I’m locking this room behind me. Don’t open this door for any reason. The school is on a hard lockdown.”

Immediately after he left, the students began to gossip. Izuku heard Tokeige and Agoyamato talking about how it must be a villain attack, nothing else would cause the teachers to have such a reaction. He thought that was a stupid idea. Literally the day before, the entire school was gathered in the auditorium because a few reporters got on campus. 

Shinso stood up and walked over to Izuku’s desk. “Hey Midoriya, did you hear from the other guy?”

“Yeah, he’s fine with you joining him. I’ll text you the rest of the info when I get home. 

Cool, thanks for the help. Anyway, why do you think the schools locked down?”

Izuku shrugged. “Could be anything. A reporter could have snuck onto the grounds again, a villain could have leapt over the barrier, but the alarm would have probably gone off if either of those happened. I bet someone’s lost control of their Quirk and they need to keep people away. What do you think?”

Shinso paused for a second. “I think-”

He froze, no sound came from his open mouth. Izuku waved his hand in front of him. There was no reaction.

Confused, Izuku stood up and looked around. He quickly realized that everything in the room was frozen. He slowly walked over to the window. Outside, a bird was frozen mid-flight. He panicked, he was right. Somebody’s Quirk was doing something at UA. For all he knew, he was the only one mobile. 

He took a deep breath and relaxed. He had to remain calm. If he was the only one unaffected, panicking could possibly make things worse. He needed to find the source and stop it. 

Realizing it might be dangerous, he walked over to his backpack and pulled the gravity rod out. He held it in front of him and opened the door. 

As he stepped out into the hallway, he found that it was eerily empty, Cementoss was conspicuously absent and all the other students were inside of their classrooms. He began to move towards the stairs, checking behind him every few steps. 

When he reached the stairs, he turned to take a final look back down the hallway. He saw someone who hadn’t been there before. The stranger appeared to be a tall thin man wearing an immaculate navy suit and cloak. The golden amulet on his chest seemed to reflect all light striking a sharp contrast to the fedora that cast a shadow over the upper half of his face. The only facial features he could see were the man’s eyes, which appeared to be two white pricks of light.

Izuku turned and flew down the stairs. 

When he reached the bottom, the man was standing there. Izuku fired an energy blast at him. It fizzled out before it could make contact. The man began to speak in a deep voice that seemed to echo from all around the building. “Izuku Midoriya. I simply want to talk to you. I mean you no harm. You have heard of me but don’t know what I look like. You would know me as the Phantom Stranger.”

\---------

Of all the prominent villains of the early 23rd century, Tomura Shigaraki is perhaps the most ambitious and important. In fact, he was so ambitious that it blew up in his face multiple times. His most famous defeat at UA’s main building is a great example of that. But despite that, he was so successful that at one point he nearly brought Japan to its knees. His league of villains was important to his incredible success. Especially after he made many other powerful villain allies. - Opening lines of an essay written by Michael Carter for his class on historical villainy. It received a failing grade.


	7. A Day At The USJ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains large spoilers for the manga. They don't really make much sense out of context, but the context comes at the end of the Joint Training Arc in the manga.

\----------

All Might was running late to work. This was a worrying and uncommon occurrence. On a usual morning, he woke up at dawn and managed to arrive after a brief time spent helping people. Unfortunately, he had unintentionally slept in and was now commuting during rush hour, which also happened to be a primetime for thievery. 

As he leaped over Shizuoka, an ongoing mugging caught his attention. He quickly jumped in and knocked the mugger out before pointing to a nearby civilian and asking them to call the police. As soon as the civilian pulled out their phone, he jumped away. It was the tenth mugging he had stopped since leaving Tokyo.

As he leapt over Musutafu, he noticed that Mt. Lady was facing down some that he recognized as a low-ranking villain. Luckily, it was near where he was going to land. He slightly altered his path so he landed behind the villain. As he landed, he launched a weak punch at the villain’s back. The resulting gust knocked his target into Mt Lady’s hand. He nodded at her and jumped away.

After stopping a burglar, and two more muggings, he finally reached the school. He quietly ran through the gates and into the building with the teacher’s offices. As he reached for his office door, the lights cut out and Nezu’s voice echoed from the intercoms. “Toshinori, care to explain why you’re half an hour late?”

He swallowed and slouched. “Rush hour traffic?”

\----------

Aizawa frowned as he flipped a rocky villain over his shoulder, these villains were low ranked, untrained, cannon fodder. His students could likely beat them. This was too easy, the villains likely had some sort of trump card. He briefly looked at the two people standing in the center of the room. They hadn’t moved since they had arrived. One of them likely knew what their ace was.

A villain with metal hands threw a sloppy punch at him, he sidestepped and kicked the back of their knee, forcing them to kneel. He followed this by punching them in the head, knocking them unconcious. As they fell, he noticed the man wearing several sets of hands lean towards the bird-like one. 

He casually dodged a villain covered in some sort of plating, he used his scarf and his target’s momentum to throw them to the ground, cracking the armor and knocking them out.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the bird-like man leaping towards him. Following his instincts, he leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding a stomp that created a crater in the concrete. As he landed, he used his Quirk on the villain. His target didn’t react and hit him with full force. The impact sent him flying into the ground. He bounced once before slamming into the stairs, cracking them.

By some sort of miracle, he was completely fine. He stood up. The hand man noticed and shrieked at the bird-headed man. “Nomu, he survived that, if he lives, that means you’re a failure who can’t kill All Might. So kill him to death!”

The Nomu charged towards him, it’s arms outstretched to grab him. Aizawa jumped backwards and wrapped his capture scarf around it’s head. 

In response, the Nomu reared its head back, pulling Aizawa towards him. Thinking quickly, Aizawa pulled out his knife and severed his capture scarf. The Nomu tore the remains of the scarf off of it’s head and lurched forward. He dodged the attempted punch by leaping to the side and throwing some caltrops on the ground. 

Nomu stepped on them as if they weren't there. It attempted another punch. Aizawa sidestepped it, drew his knife, and countered with a stab. He watched as the wound healed, trapping his knife in the Nomu’s arm. The hand-covered man laughed. “Toys like that won’t bother it. It’s too durable. It’s meant to take All Might’s full strength, or at least what he passes as his full strength, he’s not nearly as capable nowadays. He might not even be able to save you.”

Aizawa frowned. Somehow, a group of villains had learned of All Might’s weakness, and at least one of them had enough influence to amass an army of villains. And at least one of them had displayed multiple types of Quirks.

He paused. He was pretty sure he knew who was behind this. This was an incredibly bad situation. All For One was still alive and had begun to act against All Might. Even worse, he was confident enough to attack UA, something most villains would acknowledge was a completely insane idea. He had even managed to get a large group of low level villains he could find to go with it.

Unfortunately for him, his realization distracted him enough that the Nomu managed to grab him. He felt several of his ribs break as the Nomu’s large hands crushed his torso.

The other man laughed. “Nomu. He’s been annoying, kill him slowly.”

\----------

Yuga was terrified. Almost immediately, the villains surrounding the ruined skyscraper had noticed that he and Jiro were standing on top of the roof. When they had started launching ranged attacks at the villain, they had retreated into the building. They were trapped at the top and would have to fight. He wasn’t ready for action this soon.

As they stepped out into a stairwell, there was a crashing noise somewhere below them. The two stopped and looked at each other. Jiro sighed. “I think they’re getting closer. I think we should stay here. I can destroy the stairs and then we can deal with them easier.”

Yuga gulped. “Yeah, ok, let’s stay here.”

Below them, a villain rounded the corner of the stairs. As he and Yuga made eye contact, the villain’s eyes lit up. “I found em’. They’re up-” 

He was drowned out by Jiro collapsing the staircase. She followed this by sticking her Quirk into her boots and activating them. The resulting shockwave knocked the villain into the wall, knocking him unconscious. Once she was done, Jiro turned to Yuga. “Are you just gonna stand there?”

Yuga shook his head. “I-I’ll help. Yeah I’ll help.”

As they talked, more villains came up from below. As they climbed over the rubble left by the staircase, Jiro turned her speakers towards them and blasted them away. As the beats of Jiro’s attack gradually grew faster, the amount of villains below them increased. Knowing he would likely have to do something, Yuga began to attempt to psych himself up. 

As he stood there, the floor next to Jiro burst open, knocking her aside. A large man with a bald metal head pulled himself up onto the floor. He grinned when he saw Jiro had been flung to the side. “Not so tough eh? Might as well finish this.”

As he reached for Jiro, Yuga finally leapt into action. He tore his cape off and slung it over the man’s eyes. As the man reached up to tear it off, Yuga kicked the backs of his knees, forcing him down. As the man fell, Yuga blasted the back of his head, knocking him forwards into the hole he had made.

He offered a hand to Jiro, who took it. When she was on her feet, she pointed upwards. “I checked while I was down, there’s a whole lot coming and they’re planning to get up here. Let’s go higher and I’ll take out more stairs.”

As they ran up the stairs, Yuga looked up at the ceiling and an idea came to him. He turned to Jiro. “We could also try the ceiling, that’d probably take them all out.”

She crouched down and collapsed the staircase behind them. “Yeah, but I don’t think either of us know how to make it not crush us.” 

Yuga paused. “That’s a good point. Shall we continue upwards?”

“Nah, I think I took out most of them with that. Let’s just stay here and fight off everyone else.”

Yuga nodded and began to attack the villains below.

\----------

Izuku frowned and lowered the gravity rod. “Ok, but why are you here?”

The Stranger nodded. “I have several gifts for you. I will give them to you. After that, you will have fifteen minutes here. Once that is up, you will be back in your seat with your gifts and gear safely in your backpack.”

“Ok. What’s first?”

The Stranger held out his hand and a red object appeared in it. “This.” He handed it to Izuku. Upon closer examination, he realized that it was a red head with a yellow arrow on it. It’s white eyes were blank and wires stuck out of the bottom. 

“This is the head of the Red Tornado. A robotic hero long thought to have been completely destroyed. Do what you wish with it, but know, that he will not be the last robot you encounter. “

“Thank you. What’s next?”

“Next is a few small bits of information. First, an old foe of the Atom has taken the identity of another. Be wary of his onslaught. You know of him but he does not yet know of you. He has many contacts, one of whom has a grudge against the legacy you inherited. In addition, you should also study your swords, it might save your life.”

“Thanks.”

“There’s one finally thing for you. Please look behind you.” Izuku whirled around. When he saw who was standing there, his eyes widened. “Dad?”

\----------

Toru Hagakure wasn't particularly fond of Bakugo. She didn’t think this was an uncommon opinion among her classmates. The only person who didn’t seem to hate him was Kirishima, but that wasn’t really an achievement. Nevertheless, she was willing to acknowledge that he was incredibly skilled.

The two of them had been sent to the conflagration zone by the cloud of mist. Almost immediately after they landed, Bakugo had begun charging towards the closest villain. Not wanting to be left alone, Toru had quietly followed him. 

As they moved towards the entrance, villains would occasionally attack them. She had left most of the fighting to him, only occasionally stepping in to prevent villains from sneaking up on him. She wasn’t even sure if he knew she was there.

She briefly glanced behind her. A villain was there. Luckily, he hadn’t noticed her. Taking advantage of this, she kicked him in the stomach. As he doubled over in pain, she punched him in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out.

As she looked back at Bakugo, she realized that there was a villain quietly approaching him from behind. She reached out and yelled. Before Bakugo could do anything, a blast of rainbow energy erupted from her hand, knocking the villain into the wall.

Bakugo looked at her and scowled. “Couldn’t you have fucking done that earlier?”

Apparently he knew she was there. She snapped back. “I just learned I could do that. If I could have, I would have”

Bakugo grunted. “Let’s just get out of here.”

\----------

As the cloud began to surround the class, Tenya acted on instinct. Seeing a small gap, he tackled Ochaco and Sato, pushing them through it. Once they were clear, Iida turned back to look at the cloud. The gap had been filled. They had been the only ones to get out.

He helped the other two to their feet and moved into a fighting stance. Before they could do anything, the cloud dissipated.

Several other students and Thirteen stood where the cloud had been. The cloud reformed in front of the door. “Well, it appears I missed a few of you. I guess I’ll have to deal with you myself.”

After a brief glance back at the remaining students, Thirteen pointed at Shoji. “Your Quirk enhances your senses, correct?” He nodded. “Search the building, see if anybody’s still here.” 

They turned to Tenya. “You have a speed quirk, correct?” He nodded. “Good, I’m gonna need you to run to the school.”

Tenya immediately responded. “It would be irresponsible to leave you here. It is my responsibility as vice representative to help protect the class.”

Shoji spoke up. “Thirteen, everyone is here. All of them are fighting villains, but seem to be fine.”

Thirteen nodded, leaned over to Tenya, and quietly spoke. “We need backup. There’s hundreds of villains and at least one is a jamming Quirk user. Us making an opening and you running will be faster than tracking them down.”

Tenya sighed and nodded. “You’re right.”

Thirteen gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll make a distraction. You make a break for it.”

The cloud laughed. “An interesting idea, on paper it works incredibly well. It’s a shame I heard every detail. I’m afraid it’s not going to work.”

Thirteen turned to him, hand outstretched. “Really? I think you’re just bluffing.” They activated their Quirk, pulling the cloud towards them. “Now’s your chance. Go!”

Tenya took a deep breath and sprinted forwards, crashing through the doors.

\---------- 

Yuga blasted a villain that had attempted to climb up the pile of unconscious villains, knocking them down into a few others. He wiped sweat off of his forehead. “They seem to be slowing down”

Jiro spoke up from where she had plugged her jacks into the wall. “Yeah, I think we’ve either managed to fight most of them off, or they decided it’s no longer worth it to attempt to get to us. I can’t hear anyone anywhere near us. We can probably leave.”

“Why would we do that?”

“Because the villains know we’re around here somewhere. They can probably just get more of them here. I think we would see who we can meet up with or get back to the school.”

Yuga took a deep breath. ”Ok, how do we get down?”

“We could go look for more stairs, or just jump down. Then we can see what’s happening out there.”

“Let’s look for other stairs.”

After about a minute of searching, they found another set of stairs. They followed them down to the ground floor and into the building’s ruined entryway. From it they had a great view of the building’s central plaza. They had arrived just in time to see their teacher’s arms get broken by the beaked villain.

Yuga gasped. “D-do we do something?”

Jiro frowned. “Uh, I think the only thing we can do is sneak out and get help. If he lost, we definitely can’t win.”

“O-okay, let’s do that.”

They began to quickly and quietly move towards the staircase.

As they approached the bottom of the staircase, the hand-covered villain shouted across the building. “Nomu, don’t let them get up the stairs!”

Seconds later, the Nomu smashed down in front of them. It slowly walked forwards forcing them back into the plaza.

\----------

Hisashi waved to his son. “Uh, hi Izuku. It’s nice to see you.”

Izuku immediately started rambling. “It’s nice to see you, but I have some questions. How are you here? You’re dead. The police confirmed it, I fought the villain who killed you and she admitted to it. There’s no way-”

Hisashi sighed and interrupted his son. “I’m a ghost Izuku. I’m dead.”

Izuku nodded. “Ok, but how?”

“Donna Troy, she’s a Greek Titaness and former hero, needed a messenger. She chose me, although I’m not exactly sure why. Your mentor would know about her. I’ve tried to learn more about her, but it’s comically convoluted and I don’t get it.”

Izuku laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I asked about her once and Shade said it wasn’t worth explaining anything about her because it was so confusing. Based on what I do know, she sounds super cool. What’s she like?”

“She’s pretty cool, but you think pretty much every hero is cool.”

There was an awkward silence after he finished. Eventually, Hisashi sighed and spoke again. “I’m gonna be frank, I’m sorry for being a terrible dad.”

Izuku was taken aback. “You weren’t that bad, I mean-”

Hisashi floated down to Izuku’s eye level and shook his head. “I’m just going to cut you off there, I was. It’s definitely my biggest regret. I wasn’t ever focused on anything other than my work. I neglected you and your mom. Honestly it’s a wonder she didn’t divorce me. At least I sent you two money and called when I could. Please don’t argue this.”

Another awkward silence followed. Once again, Hisashi broke it. “There is one thing I definitely want to say to you while I can. I know about the vigilante thing. I’m proud of you. You’re doing good and it’s by doing what you’ve always wanted to do.”

Izuku smiled. “Thanks dad. That means a lot.”

Hisashi opened his arms. “I don’t think we have much time left, I want to try something. I don’t know if this’ll work, but it’s worth a shot. Come give me a hug.”

It worked. After about a minute they separated. Hisashi put his hand on Izuku’s shoulder. “Can you please not tell Inko about this? I want to do it myself.”

“Ok.”

Hisashi stood up and smiled. “I think our time’s almost up. I don’t know if I’ll see you again, but I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

“Bye dad. It’s been nice.”

“It has, bye Izuku.”

As soon as he finished talking, he reappeared in his seat. Shinso continued where he left off. “-you’re probably right. I think there would be alarms if it was a villain.”

Izuku smiled and slipped his hand into his backpack. The head was in there. In the meantime, he might as well get to know a little more about Shinso, so he asked the first question he thought of. “Hey, can you tell me more about your Quirk?

\----------

The Nomu slowly walked forwards, it’s arms outstretched to grab it’s targets. As it approached, Jiro and Yuga turned and ran away. As they ran, a loud crashing noise rang out from behind them.

Yuga turned and looked back, he was just in time to see the Nomu smash through a thick ice dome. Looking around for the source, he saw Todoroki running out of the landslide zone, arm extended and launching another wave of ice at the Nomu. Koda ran slightly behind him.

As Todoroki sent waves of ice at the Nomu, Koda ran over, grabbed their teacher and began sprinting towards the exit. The villain covered in hands began to furiously scratch at his cheek and shout. “Nomu, don’t let Eraserhead get away. Sensei wants him.”

Nomu smashed the ice and began to quickly move towards Koda. Todoroki slid behind it and froze one of its legs to the ground. It didn’t stop, instead it shattered its leg and crawled forwards. 

Todoroki yelled over to Jiro and Aoyama. “Help me or Koda. Don’t break the ice.”

Aoyama gave a thumbs up and launched an attack at Nomu’s head, using the recoil to propel himself towards Koda. Once there, he quickly grabbed their teacher’s legs and joined Koda in a mad sprint towards the door.

Jiro spun on her heels and faced Nomu, who had already recovered its leg, trying to figure out what she could do. She quickly realized something. Wanting to confirm it, she yelled to Aoyama. “The guy with the hands, did Nomu do anything without his instructions?”

After a couple of seconds, Aoyama yelled back. “I don’t think so.”

Jiro nodded and used her speakers in the general direction of the villain. He quickly covered his ears with his hands and yelled something, but the noise drowned it out. Once it was clear it didn’t work, he removed his hands from his ears and began to sprint towards her. Knowing she didn’t stand a chance up close, she turned and ran away.

She only made it a few meters before she felt somebody grab her shoulder. Terrified, she froze. 

Nothing happened. A brief glance to the side revealed that her teacher was staring directly behind her with his Quirk activated. The hand covered man chuckled. “Eraserhead, you’re really cool.” He loosened his grip and turned to the Nomu. “Nomu, smash them all. Start-.” 

The villain was interrupted by Jiro taking advantage of the distraction and using her limited training to flip him over her shoulder. Once he was on the ground, she kicked him in the head and ran away.

As she ran, she glanced back, the villain was pushing himself back onto his feet. He yelled after her. “I’m going to make you pay for-”

He was cut off by a large explosion, knocking him back onto the ground. Bakugo had arrived. He glanced back at Jiro and nodded to her. “Make yourself useful.”

Hagakure huffed and ran past them. “No need to be so rude about it.”

Bakugo ignored her and launched another large blast at the hand villain, singing him. 

Jiro sighed and inserted her jacks into the ground. She yelled at Bakugo. “I’m gonna do something, don’t let him hit me.”

He grunted. “Just fucking do it, don't tell the asshole.”

She sighed and blasted her heartbeat into the concrete, tearing it apart. It knocked their foe off balance. Bakugo followed up by pulling the pin on his gauntlet, launching a gigantic fiery blast at the man.

Suddenly, there was a bright burst of light from somewhere to her left. Surprised, she looked over to where it came from, expecting that Aoyama had somehow done something. Instead, she found that there was a floating hand pointed at the Nomu. 

She quickly turned back to the hand covered villain. He was advanced towards her again, hands outstretched to grab her. Bakugo pulled the other pin, forcing him to retreat. He growled at her. “Don’t get fucking distracted.”

She nodded and turned back to the fight. The villain had almost immediately moved back towards Bakugo. In response, he attempted to blast himself away.

He wasn’t fast enough, the villain managed to grab one of Bakugo’s gauntlets and redirect the blast into the ground. As his grip tightened, the gauntlet began to disintegrate. Bakugo used his free hand and sent a few explosions towards the face of the villain. The villain sidestepped and locked Bakugo’s shoulder, trapping his arm. 

Before she could do anything, Jiro lost all feeling in her earphone jacks. It was an incredibly strange sensation. As this happened, the disintegration stopped. In response, the villain growled. “Again? Eraserhead’s getting really annoying.” 

Bakugo laughed. “He’s a pro for a reason, jackass.” He attempted to use his free hand for a blast. Nothing happened. Quickly realizing he was also without his Quirk, he instead kicked the villain in his stomach, causing him to release his grip. Once free, Bakugo jumped back next to Jiro.

She quickly glanced over to where Aizawa was. She quickly noticed a weird red light coming from near the bottom of the stairs. Nomu was sluggishly advancing towards it, clearly affected by whatever was causing this. 

As she began to turn back, the light stopped and the door slammed open. Seconds later. All Might slammed into the ground in front of her, kicking up a dust cloud. His eyes not leaving the villain in front of him, he calmly gave her and Bakugo instructions. “Get out of here. The other teachers should be here soon.”

She turned and began to run towards the entrance.

\----------

Once he was done lecturing All Might about timeliness, Nezu gave him a few suggestions. “Before you call me and ask, I do think you should go see your students. The class ends at noon. In the meantime, I put the files you requested on your desk. You can look through them.”

All Might nodded, he didn’t want to make Nezu any angrier. “OK, I’ll do that.”

Nezu had already hung up.

All Might sighed and sat down at his desk. He looked at the clock on his wall. It was 10:45, the students had been at the U.S.J. for about fifteen minutes. With a little luck, he could still catch the last hour of class and give a little bit of feedback.

He nodded to himself and looked at what Nezu had left. It was a thick stack of files containing information about potential successors. Feeling that he was running out of time, he had asked for Nezu to help put together a list of potential candidates. He had then acted as a go-between for a few of the people who knew about One-For-All and had made a file for everyone who had been suggested, even those mentioned in passing.

He picked up the first one and flipped it open. He immediately put it aside for the start. He was familiar with Miruko, she wasn’t the type of person he was looking for. He wanted somebody that was cooperative.

A few other proposed pros were put in the same pile. He reached Crust’s file and paused for a second. The only real problem was his age. He sighed and created a new pile. He also put the Crawler and a couple of sidekicks into the same pile.

When he got the file on Mirio Togata, he created a third pile for students. He hummed and moved a few of the younger non-students into it as well. He sighed, he had barely made a dent in the files. Someone, he suspected that it was either Chiyo or Naomasa, had given a very long list of candidates. 

He checked the clock again. It was getting close to eleven, so he stood up, morphed into his muscular form, and began his trip to the U.S.J.

As he prepared to jump, he noticed that Iida was running towards him. He called out to him. “Young Iida, why are you not in class?”

“All Might, villains attacked. They-.”

All Might interrupted him. “Say no more, I’ll go ahead. Get the other teachers.”

Iida nodded and took off towards the school’s main building.

All Might took a deep breath and jumped towards the U.S.J. 

After two more jumps, he landed in front of the doors. He pushed them open and stepped inside.

He quickly surveyed the situation. Thirteen lay on the ground and was being tended to by Sero and Sato. Shoji was holding down a man with mist for hair. In front of the stairs, Koda, Aoyama, and Hagakure were standing in front of a beaked villain and shielding the broken body of their teacher. Todoroki was off to the side, launching an attack at it.

His eyes wandered the building, looking for the other students. Kaminari and Tokoyami were standing on a boat locked in a stalemate with the villains below them. Another group of students, this one led by Yaoyorozu, stood on top of the landslide zone. Finally, Jiro and Bakugo were fighting a villain near the central fountain. The rest were unaccounted for.

Realizing he needed to clear the center first, he leaped down into the plaza, separating his students from the hand-covered villain. As he quietly gave instructions to his students, he kept his eyes on the villain in front of him. It wouldn’t do to get caught off guard by an opponent. 

Instead of attacking, the villain pointed to him and yelled. “Nomu, get him, focus on him, kill him!”

The large beaked villain, apparently named Nomu, immediately turned away from the students and sprinted towards All Might. He sidestepped the charge and punched Nomu’s back. Nothing happened.

The hand-covered villain laughed. “You can’t hurt Nomu, he’s been specifically designed to have the ability to kill you. You don’t stand a chance, you can’t break his shock absorption. Even if you could, he’d just regenerate.”

Nomu spun and attempted to backhand All Might. He ducked the attack and punched the Nomu harder.

Once again, it didn’t react. All Might frowned, this was going to be a difficult fight. 

As the fight in the plaza raged on, the students had managed to get Aizawa to the top of the stairs. Jiro and Bakugo had arrived shortly afterwards. Upon their arrival, Shoji nodded to them. “I couldn’t see, what happened down there?”

Jiro nodded. “There’s a couple of villains, I’m pretty sure one’s the ringleader and the other is the muscle. We were doing our best to fight them, but All Might took over, and there are apparently more teachers on the way, so it should be fine.”

Shoji nodded. “Good.” 

The mist villain shook slightly, Shoji tightened his grip. “Can someone help me restrain him? I think he’s waking up.”

Sero nodded and stepped closer to Shoji. Before he could do anything, the villain sank into a portal that he had made under himself.

He reappeared in the center of the plaza. As he landed, he turned to his companion. “Shigaraki, one of them managed to escape. The teachers know and are on the way, we need to do something fast.”

Shigaraki scratched at his neck. “Kurogiri, if you weren’t so useful, I’d kill you.”

Kurogiri nodded. “I see. Since our time frame has shifted forwards, should we retreat?”

Shigaraki turned towards him. ‘No, we finish killing All Might first.”

As they talked, All Might grabbed and suplexed the Nomu. Kurogiri sighed and created a portal for its torso to go through. It came up out of the ground behind All Might and latched onto him, it’s fingers piercing his skin and causing his injury to bleed. 

All Might grunted and let go of the Nomu. Once his hands were free, he pried it’s fingers off of him and leapt away. The Nomu pulled itself up out of the portal and rushed him.

All Might ducked under Nomu’s straight punch and delivered a full-power counterattack to the Nomu’s torso. Grinning, he calmly spoke. “There’s one oversight in your plan.”

Shigaraki growled. “No there isn’t. Sensei helped me develop it. It has no flaws.”

All Might began to launch a flurry of lighter blows onto the spot where he had hit the Nomu. “There’s one big one. Nomu has shock absorption, not nullification. That simple difference means that there’s a limit. And I can go beyond that limit.” He reared back and launched a devastating blow that sent the Nomu flying through the roof.

Upon seeing this, Shigaraki began to frantically scratch his face. “How? It was flawless. Were you not as weak as Sensei thought?”

All Might smiled, he was running low on time and had to be careful. He really couldn’t risk ending up in his weakened form. “You’ll have plenty of time to think about all of that while you’re in prison.”

Kurogiri leaned towards Shigaraki. “Maybe he is weaker, he hasn't attacked us yet. The students and teachers aren’t here to help. We have an opportunity.”

Shigaraki nodded. “Help me get closer.”

Kurogiri created a large portal directly in front of All Might. Shigaraki climbed through it, his arm outstretched to grab All Might.

Panicked, All Might prepared to use a last ditch attack. Before he could, gunshots rang throughout the building and Shigaraki recoiled in pain as a bullet hit his wrist.

He glanced back at the entrance and relaxed a little, the teachers had arrived. 

Thinking quickly, Kurogiri teleported himself and Shigaraki away, narrowly avoiding a second barrage of bullets.

As the teachers fanned out and went to secure the USJ, All Might was surrounded by a thick wall made of shadows. Once he was sure he couldn’t be seen, he depowered himself. Seconds later, Shade stepped through the barrier, a frown on his face. “It’s an oddity that even weakened something would tire you like this. What happened?” 

All Might sighed. “They had some sort of possibly genetically engineered villain. It was incredibly strong, had shock absorption and one of the villains who escaped claimed it could regenerate. If it turns out to be true, I think they were working for All For One.”

\-----------

The students were quickly evacuated from the building. Once they were outside, Midnight and Power Loader examined any injuries they had. Aside from Aizawa and Thirteen, everyone had managed to remain relatively unharmed.

After a few minutes of waiting, the police arrived. Upon arrival, a group of officers went about gathering statements from the students.

As soon as both of them were finished talking with the police. Jiro walked over and sat down next to Aoyama, who was sitting on the railing outside of the U.S.J.’s entrance and watching some paramedics load their teacher into an ambulance. “Well that was terrifying.”

He shivered and looked at his feet. “Yeah, it was. I’m pretty sure I was running on nothing but adrenaline. Now that it’s over, it's just hit me. I almost died. Anyone in there could have died and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Jiro patted his shoulder. “Hey, don’t count yourself out. You helped save our teacher’s life.”

He looked at her and weakly smiled. “I guess I did.”

Behind them, the door opened. Both of them turned to see Nezu step out of the USJ. He immediately walked over to a trenchcoat wearing officer and pulled him aside. After a brief conversation, the man nodded and walked into the building. Next, he went over to Midnight and talked to her for a bit. Finally, he got a megaphone from one of the officers and climbed onto one of the cars. 

“Students, we’ve got a bus on the way here. It’s going to take you back to the main building Once it arrives, please get on it. Once you are back, change back into your uniforms and gather your belongings, take anything of value. We will be spending a few days to review our security to make sure this doesn’t happen again. You will not be able to access school grounds while we are doing this. We expect you will be able to come back to school next Wednesday.”

As soon as he finished, there was a car horn from further down the road. Midnight stood up and gestured for the students to follow. In silence, they trudged behind her and climbed onto the bus.

\----------

When he woke up, Shota immediately assumed the worst. He could feel the blindfold on his face, he could tell that he had been drugged with something and finally, he could tell that most of his body was encased in something. Deciding to make sure his Quirk still worked, he activated it.

Almost immediately someone that sounded exactly like Recovery Girl spoke from somewhere to his left. “Don’t do that! You damaged your eyes really bad, that’ll strain them and make it worse.”

Aizawa growled. “Give me one reason why I should trust you. You just want my Quirk.”

“Shota, you’re in the hero section of Musutafu general hospital. While fighting, you broke six ribs, one of which punctured a lung, both of your forearms, four fingers, and your collarbone. You also had a few nasty gashes on your face and back and got a mild concussion. I never thought you would do something as stupid as attempt to use your Quirk with eye damage, but you did.”

Aizawa snorted. “A voice disguising Quirk is clever, but it isn’t gonna fool me. I’m not going to give you any information.”

“Why the hell would anybody put this much effort into a ruse. You’re currently on a strong painkiller, I think it might be making you paranoid. You weren’t captured. Your students and All Might got you out of the U.S.J. Let me check when the specialist said I could take these off.”

Deciding to play along, Shota responded. “Which ones? Were any of them hurt?”

“All of your students are fine. A group of them managed to get you away from the villains. Would you rather I prove myself by talking about your private students?” They stepped closer. “If you want, I can take your blindfold off for a little bit. The specialist’s notes said that it should be fine.”

Shota thought about it for a second. “Fine, do it.”

The voice sighed and then walked towards him. A few seconds later, the blindfold was gone and he was staring at a hospital ceiling with Recovery Girl’s disapproving face off to the side. He frowned. “Sorry about that. Is Nezu nearby?”

She rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone. In the meantime, he examined his surroundings, he was definitely in a hospital room. He looked down at his body, both his arms and much of his torso were covered in bandages and casts. About a minute later, Recovery Girl looked down at him. “Nezu should be here soon. I’m going to put the blindfold back on.”

“Any idea how long I’ll be here?”

She sighed and put the blindfold back on. “I can only heal so much of the damage at a time. If all goes well, you’ll be able to go home on Monday, but I’ll only let you do that if you promise not to overexert yourself. You’ll probably be in the casts until after the sports festival.” 

She typed something for a little bit and left the room.

Almost immediately after she left, somebody stepped out of the corner opposite of the door. Nezu squeaked out. “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought Shade with me. He has something to say to you. I figured whatever you wanted me for is very important, so if you want him to, he can step out.”

“That’s fine, he already knows the important bits. One of the villains, the hand covered one, referred to them as Nomu, was apparently specifically created to fight All Might. Nomu definitely had multiple Quirks, it regenerated and shrugged off a lot of attacks. Unless you know somebody else with the ability to give people multiple Quirks, All For One’s probably back.”

Nezu squeaked back. “All Might came to a similar conclusion. We’ll start doing some small scale investigations to see what we can find. When you’re out of your casts you can join in on them.”

“Ok, what does Shade want to talk to me about?”

From somewhere to his right, he could hear Shade talk. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

Aizawa frowned. “I was fighting the Nomu and it hit me really hard. Then the students came and carried me away, they got me right in front of the stairs before I passed out.”

“That lines up with the timeframe. As you lost consciousness, something happened. You likely experienced a Quirk evolution. At least, that’s the story we’re currently going with. Both me and Nezu suspect something else happened. Although we are currently not sure what.”

“What did I do?”

“You shut down all Quirks in a radius. Reports from the students suggest that you were still conscious at the time. This contradicts your statement as you claim to have been unconscious at this time. Additionally, there is evidence that something else was going on. One of the students standing on the stairs saw you take a hit that, by all accounts, should have killed you. You were barely harmed. This led us to the conclusion that something else happened.” 

“Any ideas on what it is?”

“A few, almost all of them are incredibly unlikely. We will update you later. For now, you need to rest.”

“Alright.” He paused for a second. “Can one of you please get me a phone? I need to call Hizashi and Nemuri.”

\---------- 

Izuku’s interrogation of Shinso was interrupted by Nezu on the intercom. “Before I begin, I want to say that this situation has already been dealt with. A group of villains managed to break into campus. Because of this, we have chosen to end the school day early to inspect our security. At the moment, we expect to have you back next Wednesday. You will not be able to access the building in the meantime, so please take anything of value home. Keep an eye out for any official communication that says otherwise.”  
As Nezu finished talking, the class erupted into hushed whispers. As they began to gather their things, Izuku looked over at Shinso and shrugged. “I guess one of them had a way to get around the alarms.”

“Yeah. Hey do you wanna hang out and get lunch or something?”

Izuku shook his head. “Sorry, I have stuff to do this weekend and I want to get my homework done early. Maybe later?”

Shinso sighed, disappointment clear on his face. “That’s fine.”

Izuku stood up. “I’ll see you later.”

“See you later.”

Izuku left the classroom and immediately set off to Nezu’s office. As he walked up to the door, his phone vibrated. He pulled it out and looked at the message. It was from an unidentified number and simply told him to walk inside of the room, someone would be along shortly.

He stepped inside and sat down in front of Nezu’s desk. After about thirty seconds of waiting, All Might walked through the door in his weakened form.

He waved to Izuku. “Hey, Nezu sent me. What is it?”

Izuku pulled the head out of his backpack. “This.”

All Might looked at it for a second, clearly unsure of what to do. “I’ll call Nezu.” He pulled out his phone and put it up to his ear. “Nezu, he’s got something. I think you should take a look at it. Maybe Shade too.” He paused for a second. “Well it’s some sort of head. I think it’s made of metal, but I’m not sure. It’s definitely got a few cables and wires though.” He paused again, after a couple of seconds, he put his phone back in his pocket. “They’ll be here soon.”

After a little bit of waiting, a shadow portal opened in the corner of the room. Shade and Nezu stepped out of it. As soon as he saw the head, Shade raised an eyebrow and held out his hand. Izuku handed it to him. After a brief analysis of it, he gently put the head on Nezu’s desk. “I thought this was destroyed. This is a wonderful thing to find. It’s the head of the state-of-the-art android hero Red Tornado. Frankly, he’s still groundbreaking.” He turned to All Might. “Can you get it to I-Island? It’s likely the only place that would have the ability to repair him.”

“I’ll see if David knows anybody skilled in robotics.”

“Good. We can get the head there at his earliest convenience.”

Nezu nodded. “Sounds good. Just one more thing while you’re here, Aizawa was injured badly during the attack. He’ll recover, but it’ll probably be a while before he will be able to teach you. Knowing him, he’ll probably try anyway. If he shows up to teach you, immediately contact me and I’ll send Recovery Girl after him.”

Izuku nodded. “Ok.”

\----------

Shigaraki roughly landed on the bar’s floor. Seconds later, Kurogiri followed. After they had both arrived, the monitor in the corner of the room crackled to life. A deep menacing voice echoed from it’s speakers. “Shigaraki, was your mission a success?”

Shigaraki frowned. “No. We were crushed. I got shot and we lost all of our cannon fodder. All Might wasn’t even weaker. He still beat the Nomu.”

“No, he isn't, he's definitely weaker. We merely underestimated just how much strength he had left. What about the Nomu? Did you retrieve it?”

Kurogiri answered. “ No. He was sent flying right before the teachers arrived. I don’t know where he landed and warping to find him would have been too risky with Hound Dog and Ectoplasm nearby.”

“A shame, it could have been useful. The man I warned you about, was he among the teachers?”

Kurogiri nodded. “Yes, yes he was.”

“I see.” The voice paused. “I’ll contact an old associate of mine. He should know more. Don’t worry, you’ll soon get some new recruits, useful ones this time. And with them, you will finally be able to become a symbol of terror.”

The monitor shut off.

\----------

I have successfully synthesized a copy of subject 2’s ability. Since he still heals we should have an infinite supply of it as long as he is in stasis. Because of my difficulties, I suspect it’s origin is not as a Quirk, but is in fact something else. Tomorrow I shall analyze it. If it is, I hope it will lead to a breakthrough in subject 3, who we believe is similar. Combined with what we know from prior experiments, we could possibly create a third mole. Particularly one that can be controlled more easily. Experiment 6 was a failure in every regard and we have reason to believe that Experiment 1 is withholding information, likely due to the interference of that damn warping Nomu. At least our volunteer is doing his job. - Experiment Report 4/4/2205

**Author's Note:**

> The crossover is DC. I was originally planning on revealing this in some form in the second chapter, but so far, in what little I've written for it, that chapter is going to pretty much be people talking the entire chapter. I may to combine it with what I originally planned for chapter 3. Also if you're well versed in DC lore, and probably even if you aren't, you can likely guess what series I recently read and will be taking little, for lack of a better term, tricks from.


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